Speed PC Up from Slow Windows

Widescreen monitors are great for watching movies and organizing windows side by side, but much of the time all that screen space goes to waste. Even if you don’t have a huge monitor, you can still get a great benefit by adjusting the Taskbar.

Why not move the Windows taskbar to the side of the screen? This may sound crazy at first and you’ll need a few days to get used to the results, but since web pages, Word documents, and the like run top-to-bottom, the more vertical space you can give them, the easier it will be for you to read them and the better it will look.

By relocating the taskbar to the left side (or the right, if you prefer), you’re freeing up vertical space for the stuff you use every day while making smarter use of wasted horizontal space, and you may even speed up your work by doing so.

To try this, right-click an empty area of the taskbar and clear the check mark next to Lock the taskbar.

Next, left-click and hold on an empty area of the taskbar, and then drag it to the left or right side of the screen. Once you get close, you’ll see it lock in, at which point you can release the mouse button.

You can also extend the width of the taskbar by clicking and dragging the right edge to make it wider and to better see the labels for the programs which are currently running.

Still looking for a good reason to trade Windows XP in for Windows 7? One word: Security. The new OS is inherently better at fighting infections, blocking hackers and thwarting phishing attempts. And with the extra tools described here, you can lock it down like a digital Fort Knox.

Install Microsoft Security Essentials.

Windows 7 comes equipped with some solid security tools, including a robust firewall and the spyware-blocking Windows Defender. On top of that, you will need a good antivirus program, one that works quietly in the background and won’t bog down your system.

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection against viruses and other kinds of malware, and it’s impact on your performance pc is negligible.

It could be a great alternative to paying an annual fee for virus protection, and whether you use XP, VIsta or 7 you should think about giving it a go and may even find it speeds up your pc.

Install Web Of Trust.

The seemingly innocent act of clicking a link – even one that’s at the top of a Google search-results page – can result in ‘drive-by downloads’ infecting your PC. Scary, right? But how do you know whether a link is safe to click?

Try Web of Trust, a browser add-on that will warn you of unsafe sites.

Specifically, the plug-in adds colour-coded icons to each link that your search engine produces: green for safe, yellow for risky and red for dangerous.

You can also right-click any link, such as one that appears in an online forum, and choose View WOT scorecard to perform a manual safety check.

WOT is free, and available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Although its rating icons add a little clutter to some web pages, we recommend it very highly for anyone concerned about security and looking for a quick and easy way to check for ‘dodgy’ pages.
 

Expert Tip: Tweak the UAC Settings

If you remember the annoying User Account Control notifications which kept coming up in Vista, then you may be pleased to know that it is still there in Windows 7. Why pleased?

Because now you can actually change the settings of UAC so that it only notifies you when you want – i.e. when programs really try to make changes and not when you make changes yourself to Windows.

Although this feature was something that everyone bitched about with Vista, it is there to do a job and that’s to keep your machine safe from running dangerous software programs or making unwanted changes to your performance pc.

Here’s how to change the settings:

- Click ‘Start’ & type in ‘account’

- Select Change User Account Control settings

- Adjust the slider to your desired setting

If you really want to remove all the messages, then set it to ‘Never Notify’ and it will be as if it’s turned off.

One word or warning though, making changes to any security levels can be dangerous so be sure you know what you are doing beforehand, and get professional advice if you are not sure.

Better Safe Than Sorry!

If you should ever find that your computer won’t start properly or is totally unbootable, you could be in serious trouble unless you have a System Recovery disc. So, it’s recommended to create one now if you haven’t already done so.

With Windows 7 you can make a recovery CD or DVD with these simple steps:

• Insert a blank CD or DVD into your CD/DVD burner drive

• Click ‘Start’ & type in ‘Repair’

• Select the ‘Create a System Repair Disc’ option

• Follow the instructions given to you  on screen

• When it’s been completed, write a label on it (with time & date helps)

If you one day find you have a problem starting your pc, insert the repair disc and start your system. You will be presented with a recovery menu which offers you several recovery and diagnostic tools and will also allow you to select a System Restore point to go back to a point where your pc worked correctly.

As it’s only a 10 minute job, go do it now before you regret not doing it.

With every new version of Windows, we get given more and more features and functionality which make it more pleasing on the eye and supposedly easier to use.

• - Open the Control Panel, type visual into the Search area

• - Click Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.

• - Choose Adjust for best performance, and then click Apply.

In a few seconds you will see a much plainer user interface and you will get much faster response times.

If you don’t like the look & feel of Windows now, you can choose the Custom option instead and change things gradually until you get the balance you want between performance and effects.