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How I fix your (windows) computer

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

It’s a new decade, but some things never change. Over the course of the last ten years, I’ve built (and fixed) more than a few computers. Amazingly, I’ve never had to fix anything but a windows machine. (Of course, Macs don’t break (usually), and people who run Linux are used to finding answers on their own. : ) In any case, I thought I’d put down in writing why computers become slow, and what I do to fix it. So get ready to be the envy of your friends, neighbors, and even impress your girlfriend (let’s face it, if you know how to do all of this already, you probably don’t have one).

Why is my computer so slow?

Yeah, I know. When you bought your computer it was all speedy, but now it’s not. What’s the deal?

Your computer is slow because of one or more of the following three reasons:

  • You have too many applications running simultaneously with not enough RAM (memory) to support them.
  • You have some sort of spyware bogging down your computer. This is actually just a subtype of #1.
  • You have a virus designed specifically to slow down your computer, or designed to do other things in the background without being detected. This is also a subtype of #1.

So now that we’ve identified the problem, let me tell you exactly what I do, almost every time, to fix it:

  1. I run msconfig. Just go to your Start menu and click on “Run”. Then type in msconfig.exe and hit ‘enter’. If you’re on Windows 7, just type msconfig in the start menu search box, and hit ‘enter’.
  2. I go to the tab that says ‘startup’. This tab shows you what programs are slated to begin running as soon as you boot your computer, before you get a chance to do anything, and they are the main reason your computer takes so long to boot in the first place. Some of them are important, and some are not. I usually un-click them all, unless I know for sure that I want it running at bootup. You will not break anything here, even if you un-click every single one. If it’s a necessary program, it will just start up again at next boot anyway. If you’re still confused, here’s a handy dandy website to help you.
  3. I reboot. You will probably notice that your desktop loads a lot quicker this time than it usually does. When the little box comes up warning you that you used msconfig, just check the box saying not to show it again, and be done with it.
  4. I uninstall all the programs that are either unnecessary or that the person whose computer I’m fixing doesn’t even know are there. Go to your Start menu, choose ‘Control Panel’, and then ‘Add or Remove Programs’. Then find the ones you don’t need, and get rid of them. If you’re unsure about a particular program, put the name of said program in a search engine and see what comes up. That’s how I decide when I don’t know.
  5. I get rid of Norton Antivirus. I cannot stress this enough, and there are plenty of people who still won’t listen to me, but Norton is terrible. Yes, it may help keep viruses off of your computer. However, if it brings your computer to a cripplingly slow pace in the process, what good is it? If you cannot seem to remove Norton (or Symantec, same thing) from your computer via the control panel or an uninstall program in the Norton/Symantec folder, then consult your nearest geek for help, or just google the word “uninstall” and the name of your particular brand of Norton product.
  6. I get rid of IE. Stop using Internet Explorer. It’s bad… stop it. Find some other browser to use. I recommend Firefox, but there are many others. Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari are also good choices if you’re looking for alternatives.
  7. On my new non-IE browser, I download and run Spybot S&D. This is going to find and help you remove any spyware that may still be on your computer.
  8. I download and run Clamwin AV. This will help you identify and remove any viruses that may still be on your computer.
  9. I reboot, and I’m good to go.

Optionally, you can run a registry cleaner like Ccleaner to clean up your registry (in case you have old entries remaining from previously installed programs, corrupted entries, or other problems). Some people like to defragment their hard drive as well, but it’s not as necessary in the NTFS file system that has been in place since Windows NT/XP, since that file system doesn’t fragment as much as Fat32 did.

Hopefully this will help some of you better understand and solve your slow PC problems. I still think you should try Ubuntu, or get a Mac though. : )

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dating well

Friday, December 4th, 2009

I’m interested in knowing from some of my married friends the answer to the following question:

What did you do when you were dating that has made your marriage better as a result? Conversely, you could tell me: what do you wish you had done when you were dating that might have helped make your marriage easier?

I’m wanting to hear from couples that have been married just recently, couples who have been married longer than I’ve been alive, and anyone in between.

Of course, if you’re not married (whether you have been in the past or not), and want to throw in on this conversation, feel free.

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blood, fear, and healing

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

My younger brother was always more athletic than I, but I never truly accepted that fact until the winter Olympics of 1988. Back in 1988, one of the most exciting events was speed skating (looks like it’s headed that way again in 2010, by the way).

We lived in a house with wooden floors then, and my mother kept them clean and polished. She would always tell us to be careful, because they could get pretty slick. Barefoot, it was no problem, but with socks you could lose your traction. My brother saw this as more of a feature than anything else. He recognized the potential for a rink, and thus began his experiments with inertia.

He made it look easy. He would take a running start from our room, grab the door post as he swung out, sliding in a half oval down the hallway, and end up in the adjacent guest room. It was cool. I don’t say that just because I was 7… you would think it was cool if you saw it now.

I watched him 2 or 3 times before the thought occurred: “I can do this.” I put on some socks, and even had him give me a final demonstration to make sure I was clear on the mechanics. My running start went very well, but the thing about inertia is that it’s a real problem if you don’t manage it. My speed stayed up… my direction did not. By the time I’d picked myself up off the floor, one tooth had cut entirely through my upper lip, and I was pouring blood out of my mouth.

My Dad was out working on the car while all of this was going on. Both of my parents had told me not to run on that floor, and now there was blood all over. I couldn’t keep it from dripping through my fingers. Mom had just cleaned. I had no interest in her finding the floor that way. I wasn’t crying, because it didn’t really hurt, and I couldn’t see my own face, so I didn’t know how bad it was. My idea was to ask Dad if we had any band-aids. Once I stopped the bleeding, I was going to clean up the floor before anyone saw the mess. It was the perfect plan.

Now, my father is a very smart man. That doesn’t always come out to everyone, but it’s true. He’s smart in mathematics, physics, and radar engineering. One of his best qualities, though, is that he reacts intelligently in an emergency. He stays calm, and has a good idea about how to keep other people that way. So I know that when I asked whether we had any band-aids, he knew that a band-aid wasn’t going to cut it. He also knows me very well… he is my Dad, after all. He took a look at my mouth and told me that we needed to show Mom when she got home.

I forgot to mention that my Mom was out grocery shopping at the time. If Mom had been home, none of this would have ever happened in the first place. That mommy sixth sense of hers would have been tripped before my brother even put on the first sock. It must have been tingling anyway, because she was home within minutes of my accident (for those who don’t realize it, this was before cell phones, so we couldn’t call her). In the few seconds it took my Mom to figure out what was going on and to look at my mouth, she also knew a band-aid wasn’t going to fix this. Unfortunately, her knowledge about me was temporarily overridden by her motherly care, and she blurted out the truth: “that’s going to need stitches.” This was not what I wanted to hear.

In that moment, I transformed from a very calm little boy who was bleeding profusely out of his mouth to a very terrified one bent on avoiding the hospital. Someone sewing my skin shut was not in my game plan, and I let everyone know it. Minutes later, my poor parents were experiencing the horror of trying to get me into the car. I refused, and physically resisted every effort they made. In the process, our entire neighborhood got to spend that Saturday morning hearing my screams that my parents were trying to kill me. At one point I landed a fist into my Mom’s throat as I was flailing around and trying to get loose. Before it was over, my Dad was vocally considering tying me up with a rope, and he wasn’t kidding.

It wasn’t much better when we arrived at the hospital. I was outnumbered by my parents and doctors, but had no intention of giving up. I had my hands clamped over my mouth and felt like I could keep that up indefinitely. In retrospect, I think I probably terrified other children at the hospital that day, what with the insane look on my face and blood dripping out through my hands. In the end, they managed to pry my fingers back and confirm the need for stitches.

I remember very specifically one of the orderlies asking me whether I was going to do this “like a big boy” or whether they were going to have to “strap me down.” At 7 years old, I said: “you better strap me down.”

In the end, they sewed up my lip, but it was a lot harder than it had to be. My parents even made me go back and apologize to the doctors for my behavior.

I was just so afraid of those stitches. I didn’t like needles. I was scared of the pain.

It was clear to everyone but me that I needed them though. It’s hard to believe that I actually wanted to use a band-aid. I was so busy protecting myself that I didn’t have time to look in the mirror and see how bad it was. I was terrified.

The doctors knew what they were doing, though. They knew that even as the needle and thread pierced my flesh, it would also bind. It would put my body in a state of healing. The pain was minimal, but it would truly stop the bleeding — the way a band-aid never could. Though I resisted and fought with every ounce of my strength, they did what was best for me.

How often does this happen in our spiritual lives? The wound is there. We cannot stop the bleeding. We desperately want to cover it all up before anyone can see. We fear the pain of legitimate treatment to the point that we’re willing to accept the superficial. We are terrified.

But the God of all creation has the solution. The psalmist wrote: He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.

I still bear the scar today from my experience in the ER. If I hadn’t struggled so much, I might not still have a fat upper lip on one side.

Our God is the master Healer, though. When He binds up, there is no scar. When He treats, there is no trace of infirmity. When He is finished, we are just as good as when He created us.

Every now and then, I still trip and fall. Even today, I nearly knocked over a girl as I was coming out of a restaurant. So it is with my spirit. I make mistakes; I stray from God’s will. I am encouraged to know that when I am bruised and broken, the Lord is gracious to me and will heal me if I am willing.

I shudder to think what would have happened if I’d been allowed to try band-aids as I wished, or if I’d been left to continue bleeding. The wound could have become infected and festered; I might even have died. May we never be so afraid of the treatment that we remain bleeding and broken. The master Healer is always ready to treat us, if we will trust Him long enough to work.

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facebook applications and privacy

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

If you’ve ever accepted a facebook application, you know the drill. Usually it will say something to the effect of “we have access to all your information now.” Essentially, you are adding that application’s developer/company as a friend.

One thing you may not be aware of is the fact that, if a friend of yours adds an application, it might now have access to any information your friend can see about you.

Some people (like myself) are not a big fan of that. Here’s how to stop it:

  • Once you’ve logged into your facebook account, click on Settings at the upper right.
  • Then look down toward the bottom of the page and find the section labeled Privacy, and click manage.
  • Look down a couple of settings to Applications, and click on that. This brings you to the “overview” tab.
  • At the top, choose the tab that says Settings, and this will allow you to restrict how other applications (that you don’t have installed, but your friends do) can view your information.

    • Personally, I choose to eliminate any information for those applications, like so:

    appprivacy

    Good luck, and feel free to leave any questions in the comments.

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    idols in my heart

    Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

    A couple of weeks ago, I was reading through some of Ezekiel, and I came across a section I’d never given much attention before. Chapter 14 begins:

    Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me. And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Any man of the house of Israel who sets up idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols, in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols.”‘”

    Of course, it’s no surprise that Israel’s God is no fan of idols. He kind of mentions that in the first two commandments. There is something more going on here, though. Notice God’s description of the elders: they have set up idols “in their hearts”. They “put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity.” In fact, God is so upset about this that He said these people have no right to consult Him at all.

    Wait… what?

    Since when does God not want people asking Him for advice? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? It seems we’re going to have to dig a little deeper.

    A God who hurts

    You see, the prophet Ezekiel lived with his people in Babylon. God allowed Israel’s defeat and exile because they refused to leave other gods behind. Despite this punishment, the leaders and the people were unwilling to make the changes that would provide reconciliation. Back in chapter 6, God details the consequences of idol worship:

    In all your dwellings, cities will become waste and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and desolate, your idols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out. The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD. However, I will leave a remnant, for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.

    So there we have it. Amid God’s righteous anger, there is something else stirring. God is hurt. It seems impossible that supreme deity could be wounded, but the message to Ezekiel is undeniable: God is hurt.

    Anyone who has been rejected remembers the sting. No one knows it like God, though. Just as God’s love is infinitely deeper than our own, the pain He feels at our rejection is infinitely sharper than any we could feel.

    In chapter 8, God shares the source of His pain. He provides a spiritual vision in which Ezekiel is shown the inside of the temple area. God wants him to see what Israel’s spiritual leaders are doing:

    And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.” So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around. Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising. Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.'”
    A love destroyed

    I have never been married, but I can imagine the pain of betrayal would be severe. The only thing I can envision that would make it worse is deception. It is a grave matter to openly reject someone and break a commitment. It is something much worse to do it in secret, to hide it, and to act as though vows have not been broken, and as though sin has not occurred. Those who do such things are scorned by society for their lack of compassion. Our God knows about that kind of pain.

    Sometimes, when we make poor choices, it seems easiest to continue on that path. When vows have been broken, and so much has been lost, restoration seems like a foolish dream. We might choose to drown ourselves in the pleasures of sin, and extinguish any hope for a new beginning. Looking at chapter 11, it would seem Israel did just that. They were not interested in coming back to God. They believed He had abandoned them and left them for dead. Even Ezekiel wondered whether God would completely destroy what remained of his people. Fortunately, that was not the plan:

    Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it, and I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them and I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.

    God never wanted to rid Himself of Israel. He always wanted them to come back. He only disciplined them so that their idols could be broken and brought to an end. By the time we arrive back at chapter 14, Israel has yet to repent, and God has yet to give up.

    God knew that the problem was not the wood, or the clay, or the stone from which Israel’s idols were built. The problem was that the idols had been set up directly in their hearts. Israel’s idols were without spirit, without love, and without life. Now that those idols lived in human hearts, the hearts became just like what lived inside. They became stone.

    A hope restored

    All humans feel temptation. Sometimes we wonder why God even lets it exist. It might help to know that temptation has another name, though: free will. One cannot exist without the other. Free will is the thing that makes our good choices so beautiful, and our bad ones so terrible. Neither our good nor our evil is forced.

    God knows we are tempted, and He knows we have a choice. What He wants is for us to choose Him first. He wants us to love Him, and trust that His way is best. It’s what He wanted from Abraham when He told him to move to a new place. It’s what He wanted from David when He promised the kingdom of Israel. It’s what He wanted from Jesus when He came to save the world, and it’s what He wants from us now.

    Even with all the love and mercy God provides, He knows we will never choose Him first if we keep our idols hanging around. As long as we keep our stumbling blocks right before our faces, it is pointless to ask for His guidance.

    If I were married, but decided to leave my wife and be unfaithful, it would be so hurtful to her. How much more of a slap in the face would it be if I called her up for directions to a hotel where I planned to take my mistress? That is what I do to God every time I choose to keep my idols right in front of my face. I call myself His child and His beloved, but will I choose Him first? Even as I began writing these thoughts, I was tempted to linger too long on one of those paid programming advertisements that are prominent just before dawn. What will I choose? How will I let God know that He comes first?

    Let us make no mistake; God will not give up on us. However, if we want to seek His presence and simultaneously live in sin, He will let us know just how bad things are without Him. I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols, in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols. Even in His discipline, God is seeking out our hearts and moving us to choose Him first.

    No matter what you have done, or how far you have run from God, He is seeking you out. Israel broke their vows with God so many times, and yet through Hosea He says:

    I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ “You are my people”; and they will say, “You are my God.”

    You may be like me. You may be covered by the blood of Jesus of Nazareth, and still tempted to sin. Let’s encourage one another to remember that we are not who we once were:

    Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

    I want God’s presence and guidance in my life. I want to love Him and make Him proud. I want to claim Him as Father and ask Him for good gifts. I am weak, though. Let’s encourage one another to smash down the idols in our lives, and never set them up in our hearts.

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