PC Help Guide

Notification balloons are those annoying things popping up in a balloon that tells you basic stuff about the OS, so unless you are one of the few that actually enjoys the balloons you may want to get rid of them.

• Open regedit
• Navigate to this location
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
• In the right pane right click and select new DWORD
• Set the name as EnableBalloonTips
• Keep the value data set at 0
• Done
• You will need to restart your PC to see it take effect

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In Windows XP whenever your PC reads a file it marks that file with times and dates when you accessed it last. Now if you often check back at these data for any reason than you should keep Last Access Timestamp enabled, but if you don’t then you can disable it.

By disabling it you will stop XP from marking everyfile with a timestamp and cluttering things up, I have given two options here to which disable your Last Access Timestamp.

Command Prompt

• Open your cmd
• Enter the following command
  • FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1
• Reboot your computer
• To turn Last Access Timestamp back on just put this command back into your cmd
  • FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 0

Registry Edit

• Open your registry editor
• Navigate to this location
  • SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
• Add a new DWORD
  • NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
• Set the value to 1
• Set the value to 0 if you want to enable it again

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Here are a few hints and tweaks for you to perform to speed up your Windows XP machine;

Disk Cleanup

You should try and run a disk cleanup at least once a month;

• Open my computer
• Right click on your c:drive
• Select properties
• Click disk cleanup

Increase RAM

I have seen some older XP computers with such low RAM I don’t know how they are even running, if you find your computer running slow then you should try increase your RAM.

To find out how much RAM your computer has just do this;

• Right click on my computer
• Click properties
• On this screen it will show you your total RAM

Check Your Computer for Spyware/Adware/Malware

These dangerous computer nasties can dramatically slow down your PC to the stage where I have seen older XP computer almost unusable.

To scan your computer for any of these just click the following link and run the software – scan for adware/malware/spyware

MSCONFIG

This is a very handy tool on a Windows based machine so you should get used to using it, here you can make your bootup speed increase heaps.

When your computer boots up it also tries opening programs you have installed, what you need to do is to make sure your PC doesn’t try open these on boot – do this through MSCONFIG.

• Click start then run
• Type msconfig in the run box
• The msconfig box will appear
• Click the startup tab
• You will see here it shows a large list of all the programs your computer is starting up a bootup
• Just go though and uncheck the software you don’t need at startup
• Click apply and OK
• Your boot should be much faster now

Update Your Drivers

Having outdated drivers or drivers with errors can make the running of programs and applications on your computer turn into a nightmare, half of them won’t start at all and the other half will take a week to open.

You should run a scan of your drivers and update them immediately so your programs and applications will run fast and smoothly.

Click the following link and run the software to start the driver scan – scan and update your drivers

Get Microsoft Updates

It might sound obvious, but I’m amazed at how many people still do now download all of the updates and service packs.

They are very useful to your XP machine and will make it run better.

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Systeminfo is a cool little statistical tool used in all versions of windows that will give you information on the following;

• Operating system configuration
• System boot time (last time you booted in)
• Original install dat
• Security information
• Product ID
• Hardware properties, such as
  • RAM
  • Disk space
  • Network cards

To access systeminfo just do the following;

• Open command prompt (type cmd in your start menu)
• Type this on a command line
  • systeminfo
• Wait for a moment and you will now see a list of all the information

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If you ever get frustrated waiting for your XP machine to shutdown (I just walk away), then you can perform this tweak that will speed up the shutdown time.

Just follow these dot points to speed up your shutdown time, but this is a registry edit so remember to backup your registry before performing any tweaks.

• Open regedit
• Navigate to this location
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
• Create these new DWORDS and set the value to this number
  • AutoEndTasks=1
  • HungAppTimeout=4000
  • WaitToKillAppTimeout=4000
  • WaitToKillServiceTimeout=4000
• You should find that your XP shutdown speed will be faster

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Do you get annoyed sometimes with all the beeps your computer makes? Well there is a quick registry tweak you can perform that will stop all your system beeps.

Remember to backup your registry before doing any edits!

• Open regedit
• Go to this location;
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound
• Click on the key beep
• Set the value to No
• Close and done

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If you are sick of the task scheduler running on your Windows Vista PC then here is a quick registry edit you can perform that will stop it from running;

• Open up your regedit
• Navigate to this location
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Schedule
• Find the DWORD called start
• Change its value from 2 to 4
• Close and reboot your PC
• The task scheduler will now be stopped

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Do you want to remove the games link from your start menu (windows vista), maybe your kids or employees are wasting too much time. You can easily remove the games link from the start menu which will take away the quick access to play time.

Here are two options to remove games, the second involves editing your registry.

Through Your Start Menu

• Right click on your start menu
• Click properties
• Open the start menu tab
• Open customize
• Scroll down to games
• Select don’t display this item
• Select ok and apply
• Done

Through Your Registry

Note: Remember to backup your registry before doing any edits

• Go to this location
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
• Create a new DWORD called NoStartMenuMyGames
• Set the value to 1
• Done
• Note: you can set the value back to 0 and the games will come back

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ClearType is a feature on Windows operating systems that aims to improve the appearance of text on certain types of computer display screens, especially LCD flat panel monitors.

Essentially ClearType improves the smoothness and clarity of all your text, which should improve the overall experience on your PC. You should find that by default ClearType is set to on but if not here is how you can set it to on;

Windows XP

• Right click on the desktop
• Select Properties
• Click on the Appearance tab
• Click on the Effects button
• Put a check on the Use the following methods to smooth edges of screen fonts
• Change the value from standard to ClearType
• Done

Windows Vista

• Right click on your desktop
• Click personalize
• Click windows color and appearance
• Select the effects button
• In the drop down select ClearType
• Click OK

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I get emails all the time from frustrated users asking how they can get a computer to boot up faster, some people even complain that their computer is taking up to 10 minutes before they can actually do anything!

Now 10 minutes is an absolutely crazy amount of time for your computer to start up, so here are some tips you can try that will speed up the boot of your PC;

Read the rest of the article here

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