For the many out there that are running Windows Vista with 512MB RAM and are left helpless without video card driver support, optimizing your computer’s appearance can mean the difference between a slow and a fast computer. I have just recently switched to Windows Classic and it cut down loading certain windows from 3-8 seconds to 1-3 (Yes my PC is really slow.)
Internet Explorer 7 will only allow you to download two files at one time. This limitation can prove to be quite an inconvenience for anyone who downloads quite a lot on the Internet. A simply registry tweak can be done to remove this limitation.
The search bar is an extremely useful and productive tool. At any time, you can just pull out your start menu and find certain files, or even use it alternatively as a Run Command bar. But as your files start to pile up, the search bar will slow down. By limiting your search results, you can get the search bar to work more efficiently.
Hands down, this has got to be one of the best pieces of third-party software ever released. Avid computers users such as I often have to go through the pain of updating each individual program to make sure that they are up-to-date. However, many of these programs do not have any update reminders. A possible loophole or vulnerability in old versions of a program can mean trouble for your computer in the future.
To ease the pain of updating all your software, Filehippo has come out with an Update Checker (Download Here.). The program works on any Windows PC running Vista, XP, 2003, 2000 or 98. FileHippo’s Update Checker scans your computer for installed applications and then compares your version to the latest version in their database. After running the program, you are taken to a webpage that lists all the updates and beta updates for your software. Even better, the green arrows link you directly to the update, eliminating the need to manually navigate to the download link.
The only downfall is that your installed applications must also exist on FileHippo’s servers, otherwise it won’t be recognized. Most of today’s most popular applications exist on their servers anyway, so this shouldn’t be a concern. You can access their website to take a look at the different kinds of programs they offer support for.
Every computer at home, or in the workplace should be running this program. In my opinion, it would be much better if they designed it so it could automatically check updates every so often and alert you from the system tray - something similar to what Windows Update does.
The Start Menu has a Recent Items list that displays the last 16 files you opened. For those wanting privacy, this list can prove to be an inconvenience. However, you can edit your settings through the group policy editor. This feature can come in handy for those with one account to log in to their computer but don’t want to leave any tracks on what they were last were doing.
Remember those frustrating moments where you would draw something, only to find that you were off by a few pixels. You then aim your cursor at the newly drawn shape to move it back into the right position but wait… you can’t move shapes in Paint. After redrawing your shape, you try to pick the perfect colour in designing your document… from only 20 something different colours. Afterwards, you find yourself heading over to Adobe’s website to download the trial version of Photoshop. We’ve all had that experience before.
It’s time you meet Paint .net
Disclaimer: Some have said this works, while some have said it doesn’t. This tutorial does not guarantee successful results.
You’re probably wondering why I picked a number as horrible as 3.5GB? Why not 4GB? Well, there’s a really technical explanation for this but to make a long explanation short, 32-bit operating systems can only handle up to 4GB of memory. In fact, this number may vary but I stuck with 3.5 GB. Along with the RAM, you also have other memory-mapped devices such as your video cards. The memory used counts towards the 4GB virtual memory address capacity of a 32-bit operating system. But actually, the world does not end at 4,096 megabytes for 32-bit Windows Vista users anymore because the Arsgeek is here to save the day.
How many of the 45 different control-panel items do you actually use? Most likely less than half of them, at least for me. But what baffles me more is the fact that there’s loading time; and the more icons you have, the more loading time there is before you actually get to access the Control Panel properly. Thankfully, each individual icon can be removed with the Group Policy Editor.
Windows Vista comes with a built-in disk cleanup tool that helps free up space on your hard-drive when things get crowded in your hard-drive. But what do you do if the regular Disk Cleanup doesn’t do any good? Well, you can always run an enhanced version of the Disk Cleanup tool.
For those who are not completely sure, Windows Readyboost is a disk-caching technology that allows one to make their system more responsible through the use of removable media such as USB flash devices or Smartcards. Rather than letting you choose whether to enable Readyboost or not, Windows Vista makes this decision for you. The thing is that even though Microsoft has claimed Readyboost to be enabled on the slowest possible removable devices, its decision is still not always correct. However, the registry can change that.
