Statistik Blog
23 Jan 2012
Clean And Optimize Your New Computer
When you buy a new computer it is often loaded with extra software that you just don’t need. OEMs are paid by software companies to bundle trial versions in hopes that you will buy the full product. The preloaded junk is a waste of disk space, memory and can even hurt the performance of your new computer so it is a good idea to remove it all.
While it is possible to manually remove each extra piece of software on your computer there is a great free tool called PC Decrapifier that will automate the process.
To get started download the latest copy of PC Decrapifier.
After the software is downloaded on your computer just run the executable. There is no installer for this software.
Click Next on the Welcome, license and Warning screens. Select if you are running the utility on a new computer and then click Next.
You will have the option to create a Restore Point that will allow you to revert your changes using Windows System Restore.
All of the programs that load automatically on startup will be displayed. Check the programs you want to remove and click Next.
Before any items are removed you will have to confirm the changes.
Next you will be shown all of the applications installed on your computer. Check the items you want to have uninstalled and click Next.
Once again you will have to confirm the changes before they are made.
Now PC Decrapifier will work through the list of applications and uninstall each software. Depending on the software you may see additional confirmation screens that you will need to click through to uninstall. Once completed your computer will be a lot cleaner and performing much better!
Author : http://tweaks.com Selengkapnya...
Close all open applications with one click
At the end of the day I always like to close the open applications to prepare my computer for the next day. Since I rarely reboot my desktop, I manually close each application. Depending on the number of open applications this can be a waste of time. The people at NTWind Software have a perfect utility for this situation aptly called Close All Windows. Instead of manually closing each application just click the Close All Windows button on your taskbar.
In this article I will show you how to install and configure Close All Windows on your computer for easy access on the taskbar.
To get started head over to NTWind Software and download the latest version of Close All Windows.
After the file is downloaded extract the CloseAll folder to a permanent location on your computer. Since Close All Windows is an application I extracted the folder to C:\Program Files\ where applications are typically installed.
For easy access it is best to pin the application to the taskbar. Drag the Close All Windows application from the CloseAll folder onto the taskbar.
Congratulations, you are now more efficient.
Selengkapnya...
21 Jan 2012
Customizing Logon Screen Background in Windows 7
When I first started to customize logon screens in Windows using a resource hacker to replace bitmaps in logon screen DLL files was the only way. This would get the job done but it would also break digital signatures on the system files, something that Microsoft values more and more with each OS release. For the first time in Windows with the Windows 7 release, Microsoft is providing the ability to customize the logon screen background without hacking any system files.
Using a feature that was originally designed for OEM computer manufactures like Dell and others to brand their computers, everyone can now safely customize their Windows 7 logon screen background.
The actual process requires creating some registry keys, folders and files. To simplify the process I created a free utility called the Tweaks.com Logon Changer that will allow you change the logon screen background with just a few clicks.
After you download and start the utility just click Change Logon Screen and then select your new background.
The new background will be active as soon as you select the new background. Click Test to see it in action.
Make sure that the background you select is smaller than 256KB, otherwise it will be rejected because of a size limitation set by Microsoft.
If you want to remove your customized background just click Revert to Default Logon Screen and the registry changes will be removed.
Selengkapnya...
Fine Tune Windows 7 on Netbooks
According to a report by DisplayBank in 2008 over 14.9 million netbooks were sold with that number expected to almost double in 2009. Netbooks have become a great secondary PC when you want a very portable and low cost way to do basic computing. Many ship with Windows XP home edition but that is just not as fun and helpful to use as Windows 7.
Like many of you I loaded Windows 7 on my netbook and it performed just OK. It provided a huge performance improvement over Windows Vista but was not as snappy as I wanted. The key to speeding up Windows 7 on a netbook with limited resources is to turn off and disable features that you don’t need. After all, it’s a netbook and there are many Windows components that will never be used. Additionally, disabling un-needed components will extend your battery life since fewer processes will be using the CPU running in the background.
Fine Tune Visual Settings
The Windows 7 eye candy is the main cause of GUI slowness. While my netbook has a decent graphics card that can display Aero Glass it can be choppy at times. Follow these steps to improve the performance of the interface:
Click on the Start Button and type in adjust the appearance and hit Enter. This will load the Visual Effects performance options.
On this screen I suggest disabling the following settings by removing the check:
- Animate controls and elements inside windows
- Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
- Enable transparent glass
- Fade or slide menus into view
- Fade or slide ToolTips into view
- Fade out menu items after clicking
- Show shadows under windows (this may be worth the performance hit for some)
- show thumbnails instead of icons
- show translucent selection rectangle
- Show window contents while dragging
- Slide open combo boxes
Click OK when you are finished.
Remove Startup Programs
Nothing wastes resources more is startup programs that you don’t need. Click on the Start Button and type in msconfig and hit Enter.
When the System Configuration utility is loaded click on the Startup tab.
Remove the check next to any applications you don’t need and click OK.
Disable Services
Now it’s time to trim the Windows services running in the background of your computer.
Click on the Start Button and type in services.msc and hit Enter.
When the Services management console is shown you can stop and disable services by selecting the service, right clicking and selecting Properties. Then change the Startup type to Disabled and hit the Stop button. Finally click OK to return to the Services management console.
I recommend disabling the following services on a netbook:
- Block Level Backup Engine Service
- Bonjour Service (from iTunes)
- Certificate Propagation
- Group Policy Client (if not on domain)
- HomeGroup Listener
- HomeGroup Provider
- Offline Files
- Portable Device Enumerator Service
- Security Center*
- Software Protection (make sure you activate Windows first)
- SSDP Discovery
- Windows Defender*
- Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
- Windows Search
Keep in mind that if you use any of these services or applications that depend on them they will no longer function. E.g. if you are a homegroup user don’t disable the Homegroup Provider.
* Make sure you use other security software if you disable these services.
Install More RAM
There is really no good substitute to having plenty of ram in a computer. You can use ReadyBoost but with memory prices so cheap why not just buy more. I purchased a 2GB chip for my netbook for $16 (hopefully the mail-in rebate will come through).
The popular Intel Atom processor netbooks use the Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset that has a max of 2GB of ram supported. The amount of expansion slots or if your netbook even has one depends on the vendor and model of your netbook.
I suggest picking up a 2GB stick of PC2-5300 DDR2 at 667 Mhz on a 200 pin SO-DIMM. That is the type of memory required for the Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset.
Author : http://tweaks.com
Selengkapnya...
Optimize Solid State Drives in Windows 7
Windows 7 is designed to automatically turn off certain features such as Disk Defrag and Superfetch on drives it detects as solid state disks (SSD). To be sure I like to disable the components globally so I know I will not be putting extra stress on my SSD and decreasing its life. Many believe you should also disable the paging file but I don’t recommend that. I’ll get into more detail on why later.
Before we get started it is important to understand that if you have a mixture of SSD and traditional drives in your computer this tweak will disable Superfetch and Disk defragmenter for all hard drives.
Both Disk Defragmenter and Superfetch are system services that can be disabled to prevent them from running. Follow these steps to disable them on your computer:
- Click on the Start Button, type in services.msc and hit Enter.
- Scroll through the list and locate Disk Defragmenter, right click on it and select Properties.
- Change the Startup type to Disabled.
- Click Stop if the service is running.
- Then, click OK to save the changes.
- Next, scroll down to the Superfetch service, right click on it and select Properties.
- Change the Startup type to Disabled.
- Click Stop if the service is running.
- Then, click OK to save the changes.
Many sites on the web also tell SSD users to disable the paging file because it allegedly wears down the disk too much. While the paging file is an active file on your computer it is not written to as much as you would suspect. According to Microsoft, reads to the paging file outnumber writes by about 40 to 1. Additionally, Microsoft recommends placing the paging file on a SSD claiming, “there are few files better than the pagefile to place on a SSD.”
Setting the SSD concerns aside, disabling the paging file on a computer with less than 3 or 4 GB of ram will result in poor performance. You may even create out of memory errors depending on what applications you use. Overall, it is just not worth disabling.
Author : http://tweaks.com
Selengkapnya...
Windows 7 Visual Styles
As with previous versions of Windows Microsoft prevents users from using third-party visual styles with the visual style engine included in Windows 7. This is enforced by requiring each visual style to be digitally signed by Microsoft, without the signature the visual style will not be loaded. The trick to use third-party visual styles is to remove the digital signature requirement. In the past there have been a lot of tools to do this but for Windows 7 there is only one right now called UxStyle.
Getting UxStyle installed and running on your computer is easy. Just download and install from here. No more manually replacing uxtheme.dll with patched versions.
Once that have the service installed it will automatically patch the digital signature requirement in memory so you can load third-party visual styles.
The final step is to download more visual styles to use with Windows 7. Below I linked some of the best places to download good visual styles for Windows 7:
- Windows 7 Visual Styles at deviantART
- Windows 7 Visual Styles at Deskmodder
- Windows 7 Visual Styles at Neowin
- Windows 7 Visual Styles at SevenForums
Keep in mind that you can only run visual styles for Windows 7. Don't try to use Windows Vista or Windows XP visual styles, they will not load.
If you want to build your own visual style or convert a Windows Vista visual style for Windows 7 check out Vista Style Builder (it works with Win 7 now).
Updated 2/6/2010 (added new sites, removed old)
Fix Aero Glass in Windows 7
If you want the full Windows 7 experience the Aero glass interface is a must. Without the slick glass interface a number of key features will be disabled such as taskbar thumbnails and Aero Peek. According to Microsoft the bare minimum requirements for Aero is a graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0 or newer and a native WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) driver. In most cases when you install Windows 7 Aero will be enabled but on some configurations various issues prevent the feature from starting.
The most common issue I have seen is a lack of compatible WDDM drivers. When Windows 7 was installed compatible drivers were not found on the installation media. In this scenario Windows will search on Windows Update for compatible drivers once an internet connection is established. To make Windows search for new drivers manually just click on the Start Button and type in Windows Update. Then, click Check for updates.
If no WDDM compatible drivers are found for your video adapter on Windows update try looking on the manufacturers Web site.
After you have, or your system has automatically updated your video adpater drivers to compatible WDDM drivers it is best to refresh the Windows Experience Index. This will run the Windows Experience performance tool to benchmark your computer and identify what features should be turned on and off. Click on the Start Button and type in check the windows experience index and hit Enter. Next, click Refresh Now.
If you still have problems try running the Aero Troubleshooting utility by clicking on the Start Button and typing in Find an fix problems with transparency and then hit Enter.
As a last resort you can try the old Windows Vista registry hack to enable Aero glass on low end systems. Let me know if this helps you in the comments below.
Author : http://tweaks.com
Selengkapnya...
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