Leaderboard

Dear Forum Members, I'm happy to announce that the WinCert platform (forum and blog) has been purchased by HeiDoc. HeiDoc is a specialized blog and platform focused mainly on Microsoft products, and other areas of IT and technology, such as Amazon and SAP Netweaver. HeiDoc is also the home of the "Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool", and the "Amazon Global Product Price Check". WinCert will not be fused into HeiDoc, but continue as a separate community under its own brand and domain. We will keep the changes to the existing WinCert forum to a minimum. A new support forum for the ISO Downloader and a German language subforum will be added. And we'll revive the community, which apparently has slowed down a bit over the past few years. As I'm in the process of relocating from Cambodia to the Netherlands, it might take a bit of time to implement the changes, but once I'm settled, I'll be working full-time on HeiDoc and WinCert, so you can expect some considerable improvements over the upcoming months!

Microsoft has these suggestions for Protecting your computer from the various things that could happen to you/it: Protect your PC http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/ Outfitting a new computer for the Net http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/u...ewcomputer.mspx Getting started with a new PC http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/yournewpc.mspx Although those tips are fantastic, there are many things you should know above and beyond that. Below I have detailed out many tips that can not only help you clean-up a problem PC but keep it clean, secure and running at its best. I know this text can seem intimidating - it is quite long and a lot to take in for a novice - however I can assure you that one trip through this list and you will understand your computer and the options available to you for protecting your data much better - and that the next time you go through these steps, the time it takes will be greatly reduced. Let's take the cleanup of your computer step-by-step. Yes, it will take up some of your time - but consider what you use your computer for and how much you would dislike it if all of your stuff on your computer went away because you did not "feel like" performing some simple maintenance tasks - think of it like taking out your garbage, collecting and sorting your postal mail, paying your bills on time, etc. I'll mainly work around Windows XP, as that is what the bulk of this document is about; however, here is some places for you poor souls still stuck in Windows 98/ME where you can get information on maintaining your system: Windows 98 and 'Maintaining Your Computer': http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindows/maintaining/ Windows ME Computer Health: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsME/using/c...ealth/articles/ Pay close attention to the sections: (in order) - Clean up your hard disk - Check for errors by running ScanDisk - Defragment your hard disk - Roll back the clock with System Restore Also - now is a good time to point you to one of the easiest ways to find information on problems you may be having and solutions others have found: Search using Google! http://www.google.com/ (How-to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html ) Now, let's go through some maintenance first that should only have to be done once (mostly): Tip (1): Locate all of the software you have installed on your computer. (the installation media - CDs, downloaded files, etc) Collect these CDs and files together in a central and safe place along with their CD keys and such. Make backups of these installation media sets using your favorite copying method (CD/DVD Burner and application, Disk copier, etc.) You'll be glad to know that if you have a CD/DVD burner, you may be able to use a free application to make a duplicate copy of your CDs. One such application is ISORecorder: ISORecorder page (with general instructions on use): http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm More full function applications (free) for CD/DVD burning would be: CDBurnerXP Pro http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ DeepBurner Free http://www.deepburner.com/ ImgBurn (burn ISO images) http://www.imgburn.com/ Final Burner http://www.protectedsoft.com/products.php Another Option would be to search the web with Pricewatch.com or Dealsites.net and find deals on Products like Ahead Nero and/or Roxio. Ahead Nero http://www.nero.com/ Roxio Easy Media Creator http://www.roxio.com/ Tip (2): Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a size between 128MB and 512MB.. - Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer. - Select TOOLS -> Internet Options. - Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the following: - Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK) - Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.) - Click OK. - Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or more.) - Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet Explorer. Tip (3): If things are running a bit sluggish and/or you have an older system (1.5GHz or less and 256MB RAM or less) then you may want to look into tweaking the performance by turning off some of the 'resource hogging' Windows XP "prettifications". The fastest method is: Control Panel --> System --> Advanced tab --> Performance section, Settings button. Then choose "adjust for best performance" and you now have a Windows 2000/98 look which turned off most of the annoying "prettifications" in one swift action. You can play with the last three checkboxes to get more of an XP look without many of the other annoyances. You could also grab and install/use one (or more) of the Microsoft Powertoys - TweakUI in particular: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx Another viable (decently inexpensive) option is to increase the amount of memory (RAM) your computer has. You can get an idea of what you need by visiting: Crucial Memory Advisor