The Daily Technocrat

So far, we have Cleaned off spyware and viruses and
Turned off some of the pretty features in Windows XP. In this next installment, we take it up a notch and turn off some other features in XP that most people don’t need (but some may want).

Firewall
Windows comes with a basic firewall. If you don’t know how your home network is set up, then leave it on. If you have purchased an external firewall for your home network, then you can use that firewall instead of the one built into windows. Familiarize yourself with the web interface of your network firewall, and learn how to operate your network-based firewall before you turn the windows-based one off. By making your network firewall do the work of protecting you, your machine has more time to do other things.

Computer browsing
Windows Xp ‘remembers’ a lot of things in an attempt to have them readily available the next time you use them. In addition, XP automatically tries to guess what you’re going to do next, and busys itself with loading up any imaginable command you might give it on a given screen.

Unfortunately, what ends up happening is that the machine tries to remember so much information, that finding what you want takes longer than just getting the data. You can tell Windows XP to not bother trying to remember some of this information by clicking ‘My computer’ > ‘tools’ > ‘folder options’ > and selecting the ‘view’ tab. Turn off ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’ and check \Do not cache thumbnails’.

We’re starting to get into the nitty-gritty here, so we’ll save some more for next time when we look at system settings and some services we might be able to turn off. Until next time, happy computing!

In my last installment, we cleaned our machine of viruses and spyware, cleaned out old, unused files with Disk Cleanup, and reorganized our hard drive with the defragmenter tool. At this point, your machine should be back to where it was when you got it, except a little bit slower due to the programs you installed on it.

But what if you want to push your machine’s performance above where it was when you got it? As it turns out, if you are using Windows XP, there are a lot of settings that make XP “pretty”, but sacrifice speed. If you are OK sacrificing some of these pretty effects for raw speed, you’re in a prime position to gain some speed on your machine.

First of all, do yourself a favor and benefit from other’s research. That means getting on mailing lists, subscribing to RSS feeds, or just generally making a habit of trying to stay educated about computers in general. After all, I could tell you ‘do this and that’, but the sacrifices I make for speed might not be appropriate or even possible in your situation. What’s the GI Joe slogan? ‘Knowing is half the battle’? Knowing is about 95% of the battle in computers.

Before we get started, it’s fairly commonly known in IT circles that you are able to run XP on 128MB RAM, but for some reason, XP really opens up at 192MB RAM. After that, the more memory, the better. In fact, Tom’s Hardware just did an article on how much memory is overkill on a modern machine. It’s a long article, but the jist of it is that (unless you’re a graphic designer or big-time gamer) 1GB of RAM isn’t out of the question, and testing shows that you will use all of it if you get it. Unfortunately, a lot of RAM is expensive, but if you want to take the plunge, decide first how much money you’re comfortable spending, THEN go to a reputable online retailer like newegg.com. By deciding your budget ahead of time, you’re less likely to talk yourself into buying more.

So what if you don’t have any money, or just don’t want to spend any? Here are some settings you can change in XP that will help raise your speed:

The Desktop: we now make you ugly
Right-click the desktop, and click ‘properties’.

Themes tab
Go for ‘Windows Classic’. Have flashbacks to working in smoky offices and mustaches on everyone.

Background tab
‘None’. You can choose your own color, but that ultra-high-resolution picture of your kids has to load up every time you look at the desktop, which is a definite killer. If you really need that reminder of why you can’t fly off the handle and destroy your cubicle, try getting a cheap printed picture from Shutterfly and a cheap frame from Walmart/Target.

Screen Saver tab
This is arguable, since the screen saver does use computing power, but you obviously aren’t using the machine, so you’ll never notice. If you’ve got a CRT (boxy) monitor, a screen saver is a must to prevent burn-in, so choose a basic one like ‘Windows XP’. If you’ve got an LCD (flat-screen), you don’t get burn-in, so you don’t necessarily need a screen saver. I recommend setting the screen saver to ‘none’, but then changing your monitor’s power settings. (‘Start’ > ‘Control Panel’ > ‘Power Options’ > ‘Turn off monitor’ > ‘After 5 minutes’) This works pretty well for LCD’s, since the monitor turns on instantly when you move the mouse. It’s your call what is more annoying with CRT’s, the delay in making the screen saver go away, or the time it takes for the monitor to turn back on. You’ll definitely want to do only one or the other.

Appearance tab
You should already be on ‘Windows Classic Style’. Click the ‘Effects’ tab and un-check everything. These are all effects you can do without.

Settings tab
If you are using the video that came built into the computer, your computer has to process your video signal while you make word documents, etc. Most computers have dedicated memory for the video, but every once in awhile, you run across a machine that uses a portion of the main memory for the video. You’ll have to experiment here, so try out 800×600 and 1024×768. Also see which setting is easier on your eyes. You really don’t need to go larger than 1024×768 unless you have an enormous monitor. Finally, if you have a video card in your machine, it’s doing all the work, so just set it to the defaults and be happy, because it’s doing its own thing without affecting your machine too much.

That’s all for now, join in next time when I write about more system settings (and issue more warnings than you can shake a stick at) as we look at some of the more advanced things you can do for your need for speed.

The thing people notice most when they have a slow machine is a slow internet connection. This article will show you how to increase your speed 5x, on average.

Your internet speed can be increased by the greatest amount by simply removing malicious programs that are using your connection to spy on you, send spam, attach other machines, etc. Here’s how to put you back in the driver’s seat of your internet connection.

Connection Counts
Those with a broadband (DSL, cable) connection are most vulnerable. If I were to take a brand new machine and connect it to the internet with no protection, it would be infected (on average) in under 16 minutes. Without me doing anything. AOL users are a little safer, as AOL acts on your behalf. However, if you have kids, all bets are off, because those downloadable mouse pointers, sound packages, etc. come loaded with spyware and viruses.

Virus Scanners are only as good as the last Update
No matter what virus scanner you have, it needs to be kept up-to-date on the latest threats that are out there. Make sure your virus scanner is set to update its “virus definition files” at LEAST 3 times per week, preferably every day. Our servers update every 6 hours. If you don’t have a virus scanner, turn off your machine, unplug the network cable, and go buy one of the ones in a box at the store. I recommend McAfee for home use. I haven’t had much luck with Norton’s home offering, and although their corporate/network version is very good, I’ll still stick with McAfee’s full product (not the web-based pay-as-you-go version).

Spyware is what makes the internet slow
Some spyware installs itself without your knowledge. Some trick you into installing by pretending to be legitimate. Most get installed along with other programs, like Instant Messaging and Windows Themes. The first step is to remove spyware with something like the free program ‘Spybot: Search and Destroy’. I know, goofy name. But a good program. Download it here. Again, this program is only as good as the latest definitions, so update the definitions first, THEN scan. Spyware studies have shown that your internet connection can be slowed to 20% of what it normally would be on average, so this definitely will help the problem. Spybot will probably find something on your machine. I’ve seen results ranging from 1 item to over 1200 on a single machine. Let me know if you break the record…

Protect yourself
Make sure the virus scanner is automatically starting when the machine starts. Spybot has something called TeaTimer, I would install it. it will tell you when anything tries to install itself on your machine. If it alerts you while you’re installing a program you bought from a store, it is probably OK to click ‘accept changes’. If you’re not doing anything, and all of the sudden it asks you to accept the changes, SOMEthing on your machine is trying to change something…don’t accept the changes if you don’t recognize what software is changing something. You’re better off being restrictive and having to re-load some game rather than allow something in that you didn’t intend to. In addition, make sure your machine is automatically updating itself via Windows Update. Also make sure the Windows Firewall is turned on.

If all else fails
If you run virus scan, and run spybot, and it can’t clean off the spyware, bring your machine to a professional. It’s not going to get better by itself, and if two good programs can’t clean it, that’s a bad sign. If you are able to clean everything off, but the machine is still slow, try a speed testing tool to see if it is the connection or the machine. If the connection is bad, contact your service provider or look into a higher-quality Cable Modem and/or router. (Standalone or Modem/Router Combo Unit) (Also keep in mind that wireless is more convenient, but 802.11g is 54Mb per second, while these wired ethernet products are 100Mb per second.)

If even that fails
If the connection is good, but your machine is slow, open ‘My computer’, right-click C:\, click ‘properties’. Click ‘Disk Cleanup’ on the ‘general’ tab. Follow the directions.
If your machine is still slow, click the ‘tools’ tab and click ‘defragment’. Follow the directions to defrag C:\.
If your machine is STILL slow, consider upgrading your memory to at LEAST 256MB of memory if under Windows XP, or possibly pick up a newer machine from someone cheap like Dell.