Comments on: How I fix your (windows) computer http://blog.floydius.com/2010/01/05/how-i-fix-your-windows-computer/ it's almost like you've got nothing better to do Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:57:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Swango http://blog.floydius.com/2010/01/05/how-i-fix-your-windows-computer/comment-page-1/#comment-7339 Swango Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:32:48 +0000 http://blog.floydius.com/?p=909#comment-7339 Along with all the good instructions you gave Lloyd, I want to emphasize the hard drive more. NTFS is not fool-proof. Specially with IDE hard drives, the hard drive is USUALLY the slowest part of the computer. I've even seen better performance after I've defragged my SATA drives. 1) As Jacob said, removing large files from the computer is needed. Also remove unused programs (step 4 above). Open My Computer, right click C:, click Search. Then search for all files on your computer by typing *.* You'll have to wait a long time, but when it's finished, order by file size. Find the largest files on your computer and delete them if you know what they are and if you can live without them. 2) Defrag. Start > Assessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Choose to analyze and/or defrag the C: drive. Along with all the good instructions you gave Lloyd, I want to emphasize the hard drive more. NTFS is not fool-proof. Specially with IDE hard drives, the hard drive is USUALLY the slowest part of the computer. I’ve even seen better performance after I’ve defragged my SATA drives.

1) As Jacob said, removing large files from the computer is needed. Also remove unused programs (step 4 above). Open My Computer, right click C:, click Search. Then search for all files on your computer by typing *.* You’ll have to wait a long time, but when it’s finished, order by file size. Find the largest files on your computer and delete them if you know what they are and if you can live without them.

2) Defrag. Start > Assessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Choose to analyze and/or defrag the C: drive.

]]> By: Jacob Holt http://blog.floydius.com/2010/01/05/how-i-fix-your-windows-computer/comment-page-1/#comment-7337 Jacob Holt Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:06:17 +0000 http://blog.floydius.com/?p=909#comment-7337 And don't forget the infamous "too much stuff on your hard drive" issue. (I suppose this goes along with deleting unneccesary programs.) I'm not sure it happens to many other people, since I assume most people usually don't fill up a hard drive, but more times than I'd like to admit I've noticed my computer running obnoxiously slow only to find out that I am running low on space for my operating system partition. Naturally, the best way to avoid it is to install your OS on its own partition to begin with, giving it plenty of space to work with, and then not adding a lot of programs or data to the same partition. I was surprised at the exponential decrease in speed associated with filling up a partition. Also, while I agree that Firefox is still the faster and more hassle-free internet browser to use, I've noticed that IE8, as opposed to IE7, has almost comparable memory usage to the version of Firefox I have installed on my computer, and with the release of Google's public DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), I haven't noticed much difference between the two browsers. I think we can all agree that Norton is evil, though. I spent a couple days removing the traces of it from my mom's computer, including a proxy port that Norton added to the wireless card's configuration settings that was protected by some strange permissions policy that I couldn't just change as an administrator. Finally, I would buy a Mac, but I have too much pride and not enough money, haha. Good tips though, Lloyd! And don’t forget the infamous “too much stuff on your hard drive” issue. (I suppose this goes along with deleting unneccesary programs.) I’m not sure it happens to many other people, since I assume most people usually don’t fill up a hard drive, but more times than I’d like to admit I’ve noticed my computer running obnoxiously slow only to find out that I am running low on space for my operating system partition. Naturally, the best way to avoid it is to install your OS on its own partition to begin with, giving it plenty of space to work with, and then not adding a lot of programs or data to the same partition. I was surprised at the exponential decrease in speed associated with filling up a partition.
Also, while I agree that Firefox is still the faster and more hassle-free internet browser to use, I’ve noticed that IE8, as opposed to IE7, has almost comparable memory usage to the version of Firefox I have installed on my computer, and with the release of Google’s public DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), I haven’t noticed much difference between the two browsers. I think we can all agree that Norton is evil, though. I spent a couple days removing the traces of it from my mom’s computer, including a proxy port that Norton added to the wireless card’s configuration settings that was protected by some strange permissions policy that I couldn’t just change as an administrator.
Finally, I would buy a Mac, but I have too much pride and not enough money, haha. Good tips though, Lloyd!

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