How to Make Your Computer Run Faster

The performance of all Windows computers will degrade over time unless general preventive maintenance is performed regularly. But even the most proactive user cannot make an older machine perform fast in the digital era without making some hardware changes. With that said, what you do on the computer largely dictates what steps need to be taken to improve you computer’s performance. Your computer is also affected by lack of maintenance. Be sure to defragment your hard drive, run Disk Cleanup and clear your browsers temporary files at least every three months. To access these tools, go to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools.
Your computer will also load many programs at startup you probably do not need. You can run the Microsoft Configuration utility to prevent these programs from loading into memory. To do so, go to Start>Run and type msconfig and hit OK. Under the Startup tab, uncheck any programs you know do not need to load.
Lastly, the most common performance hit comes from viruses and spyware. Make sure you are running an antivirus program like AVG and a spyware program such as Spybot Search and Destroy.

Is the Geek Squad a Sham?

More on my rants about PC support and I want to bring up the Popular chains that are at the electronics stores. Are they any good. I thing that most of the management probably want there techs to just plow through the problems as quick as possible. Most of the time, I hear over and over about the technicians just want to reformat the system or do a system restore. Too many times, I believe that only a few know what they are doing. The rest give up after about 20 minutes because they either don't know what to do about the problem or just give up. I don;t know what the statistics are for data lost doing this process, but it's got to be outrageous. Most people don't know if that's fair or not. I wonder if some of the big repair chains management instruct their employees to try to sell more gear instead of doing the repair. Here's another video that should raise your awareness.

PC Repair Nightmares

I'm constantly told stories about PC repair in the area that well, ticks me off. There are some out there that basically take advantage of people in my opinion. You know computers are hard to keep up with and all the applications and operating sytems you encounter make it difficult to diagnose. Then you add spyware, malware, viruses and the like, it's tough. But when there are problems that are simple, or a technician doesn't follow through or even to see if the machine will boot after charging that he fixed it; well that's insane. Check out this You-tube video for a real eye opener.

My advice, question everything.

I get so much SPAM, how can I stop it?

I get so much SPAM, how can I stop it?
If you're completely inundated with SPAM, it may already be too late. Perhaps you should consider switching to a different Email address. Otherwise, there are some programs out there that do quite a good job, such as SPAMBully, while others are hit and miss. GMail also does a great job of filtering SPAM, and you can sign up for a free Email account or even add your existing POP3 accounts. If you go into settings on the top right then go to Accounts and you can add your other POP email accounts. If you recieve email on another pc ie your family's main pc, you can check the box that says "Leave email on the server" so that others can see that email on that account.

Firefox has Reached 400 Million Downloads

Mozilla has reached an impressive milestone for the Firefox browser, which has now totaled over 400 million downloads since its inception. While this of course doesn't tell you at all how many people are using the increasingly popular browser, for something almost unheard of just a few years ago it is quite an achievement.

Given that if you use Firefox, you've likely downloaded it many times yourself, no one is going to use this figure for statistics. It does demonstrate demand, however, and month after month we have seen Firefox usage spread. IE7 has helped Microsoft bring some of that back – but not by a lot. Depending on the region you are in, Firefox has anywhere from 10% to 40% of the browser market. In comparison, in 2004 Firefox struggled under 3%.

I do hope they can continue to gain market share – I hope, however, that it doesn't come at the cost of browser quality.

Labor Day Malware?

Sophos has posted a new article a few days ago on their blog about a malware that is related to Labor Day which occurred last Monday on North America.

The titles in the subject lines include “Happy Labor Day”, The Big Labor Day Weekend”, and “A Labor Day E-Card”.

The emails contain links that look legitimate and includes trusted websites such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Some of the links are:
http://msn.com/funny/laborday?
http://yahoo.com/07greetings/laborg?
http://google.com/funcard/hol07?

However, the links actually point to compromised computers. If a user clicked on any of the links, he or she will see a webpage with a picture that shows two men who are constructing a Happy Labor Day banner.

Source is from Sophos