| PREMIERCONNECT.COM - last updated: 14th November 2006 |
| This website is gonna have a whole bunch of information
about
various things. If
you managed
to come by this website then you will find it rather
bland while it is in its development stage. I am merely emptying my
mind on a blank piece of web page so I expect there to be
mistakes galore for the time being.
The advantage of me uploading while developing is Search Engine Optimisation. Google and the like will start to find this site and slowly move it up the ranks (hopefully). Notice I say slowly, this is why I am uploading changeable pages as and when - so as to get on the Google ladder and start moving up rungs over time! Here's and interesting start though.... Don't waste money changing your PC for a more powerful version yet!! Many people fall into the trap of thinking they need to change their PC for a couple of reasons: 1. Wow there's a new processor on the market I gotta get me one of those 2. My PC is running slow This
is an overall summary in my experience (so far, more to come) of what
to do to boost the performance of your 'existing' PC...
Let me help you kick some life into your PC so you don't have to change it for a new model - follow the STAGES below - and they are in priority order so you must do stage 1 first. STAGE 1 - cost £25 or less. Goal Uninstall your current Antivirus / Internet security suite and any spyware programs, replacing it all with the more efficient and less demanding NOD32 Antivirus. Summary Update your PC with the latest Microsoft critical patches. Uninstall your current Antivirus / Internet Security and any Anti-spyware programs (taking off the load). Turn on Windows XP firewall. Download and install NOD32 Using NOD32 run and In-depth analysis on your PC More detail Kill programs like spyware which are bugging your machine - and for this I recommend getting yourself a copy of NOD32 Antivirus from www.eset.com. NOD32 has two major advantages over many other Antivirus products: 1. it's just as accomplished at killing spyware, adware, malware as it is with viruses. So no need to install a separate product to deal with your spyware such as 'Spy Sweeper' which has all sorts of bells and whistles only serving to eat away large chunks of your computer's precious resources. 2. NOD32 is very light on your computer's resources. Products like Norton Antivirus are more demanding yet no better than NOD32 - so there we are again - freeing more of your computer's resources. The only thing NOD32 does not come with is a firewall - simply use XP's own firewall to compliment (more below...). Download a trial copy of NOD32 - which runs for 30 days - and see for yourself at no cost during this period. Before downloading and installing NOD32 simply prepare your PC by doing the following: 1. Run windows update until you have patched your PC to protect against all the latest security vulnerabilities - keep doing these updates until there are no more to go - then restart the PC. 2. Uninstall the Antivirus / Internet security product you are currently using to avoid conflicts with NOD32 - restart your PC again. 3. Turn on the firewall that comes free with Windows XP (Start - Control Panel - Windows Firewall). Now go on the Internet then download and install a copy of NOD32. And yes I know you are going on the net without virus protection at this stage - this is why patching your PC and turning on the Windows firewall will keep you out of harms way for this short period of time. Now you have NOD32 installed, run a thorough scan on your PC - to do this open up the NOD32 Control Center - click on NOD32 - then select 'In-depth analysis'. Go away and have a cup and coffee while this process takes place - it takes a long while. OK, that's the first stage over with - now onto.... STAGE 2 - cost "free" Clean your machine of all unnecessary clutter allowing your PC to run faster. To do this, go on the Internet and download a copy of CCleaner from www.ccleaner.com. This handy dandy utility is great for removing unused files you simply do not need, and also fixes any inconsistencies and errors with your Windows registry. So simply download and run CCleaner - then select and execute 'Cleaner' - after this select and execute 'Issues'. This program is very intuitive to use. However if you feel you need a tour of this product simply go to the website and find out more. STAGE 3 - cost £20 Now that you have possibly removed a lot of files from your PC it's time to defragment your disk. The internal disk on your PC is the slowest part of your machine. So it's very worthwhile dealing with the weakest link before moving onto anything else. All the applications that you run on your PC, such as Microsoft Word, rely on your internal hard disk to serve all the application files from your C: drive - which is your physically spinning hard disk. Nothing else in your PC relies on anything physically moving for it to perform hence the reason why your hard disk needs consideration. We can enhance the performance from your hard disk by making sure that the files required by the system are filed away in a neat and orderly fashion. If you leave your hard disk for a while, all the files get scattered all over the disk making the disk arm work harder in collecting all the information - if the files are all over the place they are fragmented. To tidy the files we must defragment to ensure that the disk arm does not work as hard thus speeding up access times. You can hear it whirring and churning away in every day use. Imagine you having to retrieve files from a filing cabinet about one particular case and these files are scattered throughout the cabinet in different drawers; it would take you a long while to gather all the necessary information. Now lets put all the files relating to this particular case in the same partition in the same drawer - now this is much easier and quicker to retrieve. It's the same with a computer's hard disk. The freebie internal disk defragmenter that ships with Windows XP does a grand job, but I would recommend Diskeeper 10 for these reasons: 1. Diskeeper runs unobtrusively in the background intelligently keeping your files defragged on a regular basis. As opposed to you having to manually defrag as an when which is usually when your PC is running slow. So why wait for your PC to progressively run slower and slower, when you can have a defrag engine process keeping it all in tip top condition all the time? 2. I personally use it and it significantly improves the performance of my own PC (currently just an AMD XP1800 with 512mb memory and Windows XP SP2). I would urge you to read 'Myths of Fragmentation' from Diskeeper where it mentions Windows XP's 'built in' defragmenter here: http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/myths/Built-In-Defrag.asp. brainstorming ideas to turn to useful text above lengthen the life of your PC power protection defrag means less movement ccleaner change broadband provider – Zen Try opendns bluecoat’s freebie gmail to keep email off your disk analogx find a decent backup tool – maybe use a dodge diskeeper nod32 – remove norton more memory maxmem graphics card msconfig – tips from other sites indexing effects – maximum performance Firewall on router using net address translation Security tips useful free software of my choice forums Your ideas |