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Hello!
My name is Luke and I'm bringing a new column to
Historic-Hillyard.com.
Like the title? I’m
diggin’ it! Now, I’m no computer genius, but I do have one of the best
golf cart dealership websites around and I spend many hours a day on a
computer. Indeed, I am most comfortable behind a keyboard. Like my
father before me, I am a problem solver. I’m better than most at
finding answers using the blessings of technology. My spare time is
spent either fiddling with computers or reading about them. That makes
me qualified enough to try to inform and entertain you with an
online 'computers and stuff' column.
Now, as I said befpre, I do not claim to be a
computer genius, I just like to disseminate
information I have found. That being said, I
will ALWAYS credit my sources. First because
plagiarism is unscrupulous, and second, because
if you find my information helpful and/or
useful, I’ll know I’ve got a good source and
I’ll want to continue using that source. Oh,
before I forget, I would be happy to try to
answer any computer and stuff questions you
might have.
Email
me with your questions.
Volume: 1
“Making you computer work better in 3
easy steps. Step 1, Paint Job.”
This column is dedicated to Deborah Kleczko from
the North East Community Center. I recently had
the pleasure of stepping into her office to
borrow a couple of CDs of Hillyard info. I found
that while she is an extremely intelligent
person, her computer runs worse my uncle Earl’s
1972 Dodge farm truck. It’s slow and clunky and
as much as you try to jazz it up, it’s still a
’72 Dodge pickup. Well consider this: Pimp My
Computer. If your computer is running slow and
acting outdated you can follow these steps to
breathe new life into that computer you can’t
yet afford to replace.
Just like the best way to make an old car look
new is to paint it, the best way to make and old
computer run like new is to straighten up your
hard drive. It’s also the most important - you
might not drive the car every day, but you
probably have to look at it. First step is to
get rid of all that stuff you know you don’t
need. Wait…I’m not saying go willy-nilly and
start deleting things. I’m saying go into
Start
Menu=> Settings=> Control Panel=> Add or Remove
Programs
and look at the list. Is there anything
on there that you know you don’t need? If so,
click on it and click remove then follow the
prompts. On the other hand, if you don’t know
EXACTLY what you're looking at DON'T get rid of
it. It’s
too risky. Just remove those old games and
programs that you don’t need anymore.
This would
also be a good time to remove any temporary
files you don’t need. Using Windows 98, 2000, ME
or XP you can use Window’s "Disk Cleanup"
program. Click
Start
Menu=> Programs=> Accessories=> System Tools=> Disk
Cleanup. This will open a program where you can
choose to remove Temporary Internet Files,
Downloaded Program Files, other Temporary Files
and more. Choose the options you want to
remove; I suggest the ones I just listed. Again,
if you are in doubt, don’t choose it. You don’t
want to mess anything up.
Now that you’ve gotten rid of all those
extraneous files, you should run ScanDisk (Check
Disk on XP). ScanDisk is a utility that
basically repairs a damaged hard drive. Much of
the time it will help with some of the Windows
crashing or locking up problems. Start by
closing any windows and programs you are
running. Next, with Windows 98 or ME click the
Start
Menu=> Programs=> Accessories=> System Tools=> ScanDisk.
In Windows XP click
Start=> My Computer,
then right-click your hard drive (usually C:)
and select Properties. Select the Tools tab and
then click Check Now. Either way, once ScanDisk
comes up choose the Thorough option. Click Start
and then walk away. Yeah, walk away, it’s gonna
take awhile.
Once that’s done, you should defragment your
hard drive. You see, when files are copied and
deleted through normal computer operations,
instead of placing files in nice organized
patterns they are placed all across you hard
drive in patterns that make them slow to access
for the reader arm of your hard drive (kinda like me trying to find something
on my desk
from a week ago). I put it
somewhere I knew I wouldn’t loose it but if I
had placed it neatly in a file cabinet I could
get to it much more quickly. So, like I need to
clean my work area, you need to Defrag. To run
Disk Defragmenter, Window’s utility for this job,
do the same thing you did for ScanDisk but
choose Disk Defragmenter or Defragment Now.
Again, walk away, most likely it’s gonna take a
while. Brett of 1Studios M
suggests
starting this before you go to bed, which is a
great idea too.
It is very possible you are now mad at me,
because either ScanDisk or Defrag didn’t work
that easy and it froze up or gave you an error
message or your computer caught on fire (okay
not really). Well number one, never start a task
before you finish reading the directions. Number
two, I’ve been there. You’re running Windows 95,
98, 2000 or ME and you have too much junk
running at the same time as ScanDisk or Defrag.
It’s not your fault, they are probably programs
you didn’t even know were there, much less
running. But I’m here with answers so here you
go. You need to run these in Safe Mode. Safe
Mode is a wonderful, happy land where Windows
runs like it did straight out of the box because
it only loads the minimum amount of stuff needed
to run windows. However, I'm not saying
wonderful happy land because it's simple.
If you want to try the Safe Mode option, why
don't you
Email me and I'll send you the directions.
Next edition: Step 2, Tune Up a.k.a. Spyware,
Anti-virus & Ad-blocking.
Remember, feel free to
Email me me any questions
you might have about computers and stuff and
I’ll do my best to answer them.
Footnotes:
1. The web designers of
Historic-Hillyard.com and many other great websites.
Check ‘um out at www.StudiosM.com
Recources:
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