Speeding up Windows Vista is becoming quite a popular topic and while Vista can be a resource hog, you can still get some excellent performance out of it, even on low end hardware.
If you are finding Vista really slow, then we recommend you start tuning the performance by running a few tweaks at a time and see if you notice any improvement. If things are still slow, then you can start turning off features such as Aero. But make sure to check out your hardware specs as you really shouldn't try running Vista below their recommended specs.
OK, here are some quick Vista tweaks that should get performance moving. Firstly, turn off services that hog alot of resources and aren't really all that useful anyway.
Turn Off Resource Intensive Services
1) Turn off Remote Differential Compression (RDC)
Remote Differential Compression (RDC) allows applications to synchronize data between two computers in an efficient manner. The synchronization efficiency is made possible by using compression techniques to minimize the amount of data sent across the network.
To switch it off:
- Control Panel -> Programs and Features
- On the left menu click on "Turn Windows features on and off"
- Uncheck Remote Differential Compression
2) Turn off Windows Search Indexing
In order to make searching faster, Windows Vista keeps an up-to-date index of files and folders. This index is updated on a regular basis and can slow your computer considerably. If you don't do alot of searching, it is worth turning this off.
- Click Start -> Computer
- Right click on c:
- Select the "General" tab -> uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
3) Turn off hibernation
Hibernation is a useful feature, but its another one that uses alot of resources and should be switched off if not used regularly. We recommend that you try disabling it to see what kind of performance gains you get.
- Control Panel -> Power Options
- Click Change Plan Settings
- Click Change Advanced Power Settings
- Go to Sleep -> Hibernate After
- Move the selector to 0
- Click Apply
Hopefully those tweaks will help improve your Windows Vista performance. The effects can vary depending on hardware, but many users have reported a pretty decent improvement.
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Don't forget to try our free scan for Windows Vista. You can fix errors and increase speed in just 3 minutes.
posring Id4_dani
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Updates Device Driver
I recently had to update a device driver in my older laptop, so I thought today I would discuss in layman's terms what a device driver is and the best way to update them.
A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. A driver typically communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware is connected. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device.
Basically, a device driver tells your computer how to communicate with things like a printer or a scanner. So that if you need to print or scan something, your computer will know how to do it with that particular brand of peripheral.
To update any new drivers you first need to find out what existing drivers you have, to do this you must;
* Go to My Computer (just Computer in Vista)
* Click Properties (System Properties in Vista)
* Select the Device Manager tab
* Click the plus sign to the left of a specific device to find the drivers that are currently installed for it
Now to access the new driver for whatever particular peripheral you are after you must go to the homepage for that brand. All brands of peripherals will generally give all their drivers for their products away for a free download somewhere on their site.
Follow the instructions that they give on that site and download the specific driver you need. Once the driver has been installed you may now need to follow the installation instructions, these are always very simple.
Once this is done you have successfully downloaded and installed a new driver for your computer, at this stage you will need to reboot your machine so that the driver update will be complete.
Or alternatively if you cannot find the specific driver then we have for a limited time a free driver update scan that will search and update all of your drivers, to run our scan just click the link below.
Poting Id4_dani
A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. A driver typically communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware is connected. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device.
Basically, a device driver tells your computer how to communicate with things like a printer or a scanner. So that if you need to print or scan something, your computer will know how to do it with that particular brand of peripheral.
To update any new drivers you first need to find out what existing drivers you have, to do this you must;
* Go to My Computer (just Computer in Vista)
* Click Properties (System Properties in Vista)
* Select the Device Manager tab
* Click the plus sign to the left of a specific device to find the drivers that are currently installed for it
Now to access the new driver for whatever particular peripheral you are after you must go to the homepage for that brand. All brands of peripherals will generally give all their drivers for their products away for a free download somewhere on their site.
Follow the instructions that they give on that site and download the specific driver you need. Once the driver has been installed you may now need to follow the installation instructions, these are always very simple.
Once this is done you have successfully downloaded and installed a new driver for your computer, at this stage you will need to reboot your machine so that the driver update will be complete.
Or alternatively if you cannot find the specific driver then we have for a limited time a free driver update scan that will search and update all of your drivers, to run our scan just click the link below.
Poting Id4_dani
Why My Driver Error
Drivers are software programs that enable operating systems and programs installed on them to communicate with various hardware devices, controllers, and peripherals connected to your computer. A driver typically communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware is connected.
When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program.
Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface.
Some places where a driver is used on your computer include;
* Printers
* Video adapters
* Network cards
* Sound cards
* Local buses of various sorts - in particular, for bus mastering on modern systems
* Low-bandwidth I/O buses of various sorts (for pointing devices such as mice, keyboards, USB, etc.) computer storage devices such as hard disk, CD-ROM and floppy disk buses (ATA, SATA, SCSI)
* Implementing support for different file systems
* Implementing support for image scanners and digital cameras
With so many different devices and controllers installed on your system there can be numerous reasons for errors and your drivers not to be working. Some possible problems causing your drivers to not work include;
* The device is not properly connected to your computer
* The driver you have installed itsealf is faulty
* The driver is poorly designed
* The driver is incompatible with your operating system
* There are problems with the recent driver update
* There is a hardware conflict within your system
To fix up most of the problems associated with driver errors you must run a registry scan to search and delete any corrupted drivers, click the link below to start running you registry scan.
Posring Id4_dani
When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program.
Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface.
Some places where a driver is used on your computer include;
* Printers
* Video adapters
* Network cards
* Sound cards
* Local buses of various sorts - in particular, for bus mastering on modern systems
* Low-bandwidth I/O buses of various sorts (for pointing devices such as mice, keyboards, USB, etc.) computer storage devices such as hard disk, CD-ROM and floppy disk buses (ATA, SATA, SCSI)
* Implementing support for different file systems
* Implementing support for image scanners and digital cameras
With so many different devices and controllers installed on your system there can be numerous reasons for errors and your drivers not to be working. Some possible problems causing your drivers to not work include;
* The device is not properly connected to your computer
* The driver you have installed itsealf is faulty
* The driver is poorly designed
* The driver is incompatible with your operating system
* There are problems with the recent driver update
* There is a hardware conflict within your system
To fix up most of the problems associated with driver errors you must run a registry scan to search and delete any corrupted drivers, click the link below to start running you registry scan.
Posring Id4_dani
Break off Hiden files?
This is a simple little trick that could save you from a big headache when your children delete that very important folder by accident.
Here's how to hide a folder
1.Open Windows Explorer by pressing Winkey and E on the keyboard.
2.Browse to the folder you want to hide.
3.Right click on it and a menu will appear.
4.Choose properties from the menu.
5.Put a tick in the box that says hidden.
6.Press apply.
7.You will be asked if you want to hide all subfolders that are in the main
folder. Choose to apply this to the folder only. See Notes below..
8.Your folder will now be invisible.
hide folders.
How to view your invisible hidden folder
To see the folder you just hid you need to show hidden files. To do this, you need to follow a few more simple steps. Here's how to show hidden files.
You can also type the path to your folder into the address bar at the top of Windows Explorer. For example if my folders name is Lawn mowing stuff and is in My documents the path would be C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\My Documents\Lawn mowing stuff
Here is how to find the path to a folder or file.
Notes:
Copy the path to your folder before you hide it. Here is how to find the path to a folder or file.
The easiest way is to get to your folder is by typing its path into the address bar. Showing and then hiding files and folders every time you want to use it is impractical.
Don't hide all subfolders in your main hidden folder. Therefore when you type your path in to access the folder, you will be able to see the sub folders that are in there.
Posting by Id4_dani
Here's how to hide a folder
1.Open Windows Explorer by pressing Winkey and E on the keyboard.
2.Browse to the folder you want to hide.
3.Right click on it and a menu will appear.
4.Choose properties from the menu.
5.Put a tick in the box that says hidden.
6.Press apply.
7.You will be asked if you want to hide all subfolders that are in the main
folder. Choose to apply this to the folder only. See Notes below..
8.Your folder will now be invisible.
hide folders.
How to view your invisible hidden folder
To see the folder you just hid you need to show hidden files. To do this, you need to follow a few more simple steps. Here's how to show hidden files.
You can also type the path to your folder into the address bar at the top of Windows Explorer. For example if my folders name is Lawn mowing stuff and is in My documents the path would be C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\My Documents\Lawn mowing stuff
Here is how to find the path to a folder or file.
Notes:
Copy the path to your folder before you hide it. Here is how to find the path to a folder or file.
The easiest way is to get to your folder is by typing its path into the address bar. Showing and then hiding files and folders every time you want to use it is impractical.
Don't hide all subfolders in your main hidden folder. Therefore when you type your path in to access the folder, you will be able to see the sub folders that are in there.
Posting by Id4_dani
Device Driver What is it?
A driver is a small software program that helps your computer identify and run particular types of hardware. You need drivers for onboard video, an agp video card, or even a usb storage device. When you purchase a new computer it should always come with a device driver or system disk and Windows usually takes care of the common and generic drivers.
Where to find your drivers
1.If you bought a computer but lost the driver disk. Drivers can be downloaded from manufacturer's websites for free as you already own their product. Like, Http://www.acer.com All you have to do is type in the model number and name of your computer. For Example: Acer desktop T310.
2.If you built the computer yourself, a driver disk should have been supplied with your motherboard. Store this disk in a safe place.
3.If you have a second hand computer with no disks and all components are onboard, then you must search for the motherboards model number in Google. However if you have a separate sound card, you need to find the device driver for its model number and not for onboard sound on the motherboard.
4.If you have a restoration disk for your computer then everything you need should be on that disk, including the operating system. It also doesn't hurt to ask for some free computer help from a friend.
Some Example of Devices that require drivers
* Monitors, keyboards, mouse
* Video cards, Sound Cards, PCI Cards
* Usb, Ethernet, modems, flash drives
* CD/DVD Roms
* And the list goes on....
Notes:
* If you upgrade your operating system from Windows XP to Vista, for example, you will need to upgrade your drivers as well. For a particular device there is sometimes 5 different versions, depending on the age of the device. A new modem would have drivers for Windows Xp and Windows Vista. They have phased out drivers for Windows 95, 98, and 2000.
Posting Id4_dani
Where to find your drivers
1.If you bought a computer but lost the driver disk. Drivers can be downloaded from manufacturer's websites for free as you already own their product. Like, Http://www.acer.com All you have to do is type in the model number and name of your computer. For Example: Acer desktop T310.
2.If you built the computer yourself, a driver disk should have been supplied with your motherboard. Store this disk in a safe place.
3.If you have a second hand computer with no disks and all components are onboard, then you must search for the motherboards model number in Google. However if you have a separate sound card, you need to find the device driver for its model number and not for onboard sound on the motherboard.
4.If you have a restoration disk for your computer then everything you need should be on that disk, including the operating system. It also doesn't hurt to ask for some free computer help from a friend.
Some Example of Devices that require drivers
* Monitors, keyboards, mouse
* Video cards, Sound Cards, PCI Cards
* Usb, Ethernet, modems, flash drives
* CD/DVD Roms
* And the list goes on....
Notes:
* If you upgrade your operating system from Windows XP to Vista, for example, you will need to upgrade your drivers as well. For a particular device there is sometimes 5 different versions, depending on the age of the device. A new modem would have drivers for Windows Xp and Windows Vista. They have phased out drivers for Windows 95, 98, and 2000.
Posting Id4_dani
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