A presentation to Palmia Computer Club by Jerry Moore 11 October 2006

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A presentation to Palmia Computer Club by Jerry
Moore 11 October 2006
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Background When you first get a new PC, you wil
l generally find that everything runs quite fast
compared to the older PC that you replaced.
Unfortunately, most people find that over time
the speed of the PC slows down and eventually
reaches the point where something needs to be
done. There are several factors that are
responsible for this slow down and a number of
things you can do to improve performance. This
paper will address each of these factors and
identify the necessary steps required to address
each issue. It is recommended that you perform
these steps in the order presented to gain the
maximum benefit in performance improvement.
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Download and install Windows updates

Click on Start All Programs Update Windows
Click Express and install all updates
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Scan Your Computer For Spyware
Before the widespread use of the World Wide Web,
most threats for viruses, worms and other
malicious activity came from email attachments or
discs being passed around. When Microsoft
designed their Windows operating systems over ten
years ago, they had no idea how badly unethical
people would exploit the security vulnerabilities
in this operating system. This is the primary
reason that Mac users have far less problems.
They are running on a more modern operating
system that is aware of these threats and
designed to minimize them. The hackers of today
have a significant financial incentive to
compromise your PC and use it as a relay station
for sending out spam email, capturing data they
can resell and using your PC to launch attacks
against enemies and competitors. Its no longer
just kids playing around to see what they can do
there is a tremendous amount of money to be made.
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• There are generally four different ways your
  computer can get infected with Spyware
  
• Opening email attachments from people you dont
  know
  
• Clicking links in email from people you dont
  know
  
• Downloading and installing programs from unknown
  or questionable sources
  
• Visiting malicious web sites where you may not
  even have to click on anything to become
  infected
  
• Unlike anti-virus software where you can only
  have one version running at a time, its both
  possible and advisable to run multiple
  Anti-Spyware programs as no one program can
  detect and repair all Spyware

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Anti-Spyware programs come in two types. Those
that try to scan and detect whats already on
your computer and those that run in real time
trying to intersect and defeat threats before
they are installed. The most commonly used prog
rams in the first category (both free) are
LavaSofts Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition Version
1.06 http//www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
Safer-Networkings Spybot - Search Destroy
Version 1.4 http//www.safer-networking.org/en/do
wnload/index.html The front runners for real ti
me scanning are Microsofts Defender (also free)
http//www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware
/software/default.mspx Webroots Spysweeper Versi
on 5.0 (29.95). http//www.webroot.com/consumer/
products/spysweeper
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If you are a Cox Communications customer, you can
download and install free Anti-Spyware software
at http//www.cox.com/HighSpeedInternet/security.a
sp.
I dont recommend using All-In-One Internet
security suites like Symantec Norton or McAfee
because these programs have become so bloated
with added features that they really slow down
your system.
NOW THE BAD NEWS If you are unable to remove al
l of the viruses and spyware found on your
computer, the only prudent course of action may
be to stop at this point and re-install Windows.
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Remove Programs No Longer Needed
Click on Start Control Panel Add/Remove Prog
rams and scan the list for programs you no longer
need or use. Be aware that certain computer
manufacturers (HP being the most notorious) take
the opportunity to load up new computers with
many programs. In many cases, the computer
manufacturer obtains revenue from the software
company and uses this revenue to offer their PCs
to the consumer at a lower price. Take note of
the various sorting options in the top right hand
corner of the screen. Sorting by size, frequency
of use or date last used may help you in
identifying programs to no longer need. Once you
have identified a program you no longer need,
highlight the program name with your mouse cursor
and click on the REMOVE button and follow the on
screen instructions. REMEMBER This process can
not be reversed, so if in doubt, leave the
program intact.
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Remove Windows Components No Longer Needed
When you clicked on Start Control Panel Add/
Remove Programs, you will notice an icon on the
left side of the window named Add/Remove Windows
Components. When you click on this icon, you
will open a window that lists additional programs
that can be removed. For example, if you never
use Internet Games, click on the Accessories and
Utilities folder, click on Details, click on
Games, click Details again uncheck the Internet
Games box and click on O.K. If you never use
Windows Messenger and you keep seeing it pop up
in your System Tray each time you start Windows,
scroll down to the bottom of the Windows
Components list and uncheck this program.
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Review task manager Now that you have removed all
programs that you no longer need, its time to
look at all programs that load automatically each
time you start Windows and determine if any can
be removed. Click Start Run, type msconfig and
you will see a window that looks like this
Go to a site like http//www.answersthatwork.com/T
asklist_pages/tasklist.htm or just enter the full
file name into Google to determine what the
program does and if you need it. Then uncheck
the box on programs you dont need.
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Adjust recycle bin When you delete a file in Wi
ndows, by default its still available on your
computer, but just moved to the recycle bin. It
stays in the recycle bin until the maximum amount
of storage allocated to the recycle bin is
reached, and then Windows will permanently delete
the oldest files in your recycle bin and replace
them with the newest deleted files. You can
manually clear out the recycle bin by
right-clicking on the recycle bin icon and
selecting Empty Recycle Bin from the pop up
window. On all new Windows installations,
Microsoft sets the size of your recycle bin to
10 of the total capacity of each hard drive.
With most modern computers, this is overkill and
a waste of space. Right-click on the recycle bin
icon, select properties from the pop up window
and drag the slider left to 1-2.
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Adjust swap file Windows contains a feature calle
d a swap file that provides a virtual (although
slower) extension of the physical random access
memory (RAM) that you have installed in your
computer. The more applications you have running
at the same time, the more RAM your computer
requires and when it runs out of physical RAM is
uses this swap file to move data back and forth
from a temporary storage area on your hard drive.
A good rule of thumb is to set the minimum and
maximum values of the swap file at twice the size
of your physical RAM. To do this, right click on
the My Computer icon, choose Properties, click on
the Advanced tab and then click and then click
Settings in the Performance box. Now click on
Advanced and click Change in the Virtual Memory
box. Now click Custom Size, enter values in the
Initial and Maximum Size fields and then click on
Set. You will have to reboot your computer
before these changed settings will take effect.
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Review device manager The Device Manager is one
of Windows' most useful diagnostic tools. It
lets you see all of the devices attached to your
computer, and which resources they are each
using. The quickest way to access the Device
Manager window is to click on Start Run and
type in devmgmt.msc. Once the window opens,
click on Action Scan For Hardware Changes. Now
click the plus signs next to each component and
see if you have any devices marked with a yellow
asterisk or a red x. Click on any of these and
press the delete key. Continue until all yellow
and red symbols are removed and then close Device
Manger and reboot your computer which will cause
any defective devices to be automatically
re-installed. Now repeat the process and see if
any devices are still marked with a yellow
asterisk or a red x. If so, double click on the
device, click on the troubleshoot button and
follow the on screen instructions.
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Review system restore settings
One of the most useful life saving features buil
t into the latest versions of Windows is the
System Restore function. This feature takes a
periodic snapshot of key Windows settings like
your registry and desktop and gives you the
capability to reset these settings to the state
they were in at a previous moment in time. Right
click on the My Computer icon, choose Properties
and select the System Restore tab. Make sure the
turn off box is not checked, click on Settings
and then drag the disk space slider all the way
to the right and click on OK.
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Disable messenger service Microsoft enables a
messenger service that allows spammers to send
pop up windows to your computer any time you are
connected to the Internet. If you have installed
Windows XP Service Pack 2, this feature has
already been disabled. If not, perform these
steps. Right click on the My Computer icon and
select Manage. In the Computer Management
window, click on the plus sign to the left of
Services And Applications. In the tree that
opens up, click on Services. Scroll down the
Services menu, locate Messenger, left click and
select Properties. In Startup Type, choose
disabled. In Service Status, click on Stop.
Click on O.K. and then close the Computer
Management window.
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Review video settings If you right click over a
ny empty space on your Windows desktop, choose
Properties and then click the Settings tab, you
will see adjustments for screen resolution and
color quality. The higher the numbers are set
for resolution and quality, the more computer
resources are required to display images and the
slower your computer will run. Colors wont be
as vivid and screen text will be larger when you
lower these numbers, but sometimes thats a good
thing.
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Organize desktop icons Many people have so many
icons on their desktop that they spend half
their time searching the desktop for the icon
they want to click. Remember that these icons a
re just small shortcut files and can be deleted
without impacting the underlying program.
Icons can be made larger or smaller, aligned to
a grid, auto-arranged by different sort
sequences or moved to the quick launch task bar.

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Review monitor refresh rate If you have a CRT m
onitor and see flicker, there are adjustments you
can invoke to make things easier on the eyes.
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Turn on file extensions By default, Windows hid
es the last part of the file name for known file
types File newpicture is not as meaningful as new
picture.jpg, newpicture.doc or newpicture.exe
Click on My Computer Tools Folder Options
View to disable this feature
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Check Windows indexing service
Indexing Service creates indexes of the contents
and properties of all files on local and network
drives in order to increase file searching speed.
It's quite similar to "Find Fast" that ships with
Microsoft Office. Indexing Service runs
continuously and can slow down your PC's general
performance because it has to index files
continuously. If you don't need slightly faster
file searches, the feature can be safely turned
off. Note Indexing Service is turned on by
default for all NTFS partitions.
Turning this service off to increase overall
performance Open My Computer - right-click on a
Drive icon - Select Properties - Remove the
checkmark from "Allow Indexing Service to index
this disk for fast file searching" - Click
Apply. Make sure to select "Apply changes to \,
subfolders and files."  before clicking OK in the
new window. Alternatively, you can navigate to C
ontrol Panel - Administrative Tools
- Services - Disable Indexing Services.
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Activate Windows quick launch toolbar
Right click on any blank space in the bar on the
bottom of the screen

Select Toolbars Quick Launch
Select and drag desktop icons to the Quick Launc
h toolbar area and release the mouse button
You can now delete the desktop icon and launch t
he application from the Quick Launch toolbar
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Adjust browser history and cache size
Start your web browser, click on Tools Interne
t Options and you will see this window
Click on Delete Files to clear out all temporary
Internet files and then click on Settings and set
the disc space to 100MB larger if you are on
dial up. Also review the History setting and set
to the lowest acceptable level.
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Disable unnecessary Services Services are program
s that start with Windows and continuously run in
the background, helping the OS with different
functionality. Not all services that load by
default are needed, you can disable some to
free some resources and speed up your system in
general. You should go through the list and read
the descriptions to decide which services you
need depending on what you use your computer
for...  You can always turn the service back on
if and when you find need for it. Here is the
procedure to turn off a service
1.  Navigate to Start - Programs -
Administrative Tools - Services.Alternatively,
you can do START - Run -  and type
services.msc 2. Left-click on a service and read
its' description carefully. Turning off services
disables some particular functionality of the OS,
so make sure you want to turn the particular
service off. 3. To disable, Right-click - Proper
ties - Change the "Startup Type" to "Manual" and
Stop the service. Next time you reboot that
particular service won't start.
Some Sample Services that can safely be turned
off in most Home PCs Automatic UpdatesComputer
BrowserError Reporting ServiceHelp and
SupportIndexing ServiceMessenger (pop-up spam
vulnerability)NetMeeting Remote Desktop
SharingPerformance Logs and AlertsProtected
storage (stores passwords and enables
auto-complete)Remote Registry (remote access to
your registry)Routing and Remote Access (enables
dial-in routing to your computer)Secondary
LogonTask Scheduler... NotesTo disable servic
es, just stop them, and set them to "Manual".
Check the Event Log for errors after rebooting.
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Delete temporary files In the normal course of us
ing your computer, many files are written to your
hard drive that are temporary in nature and not
needed for normal operations. Some programs
create temporary files and then leave them
behind. This can happen because the program
crashed or because the developer of the program
simply forgot to add the code needed to delete
the temporary files after the program is done
with them. The temporary files left behind by the
programs accumulate over time and can take up a
lot of disk space. The quickest way to remove
these files is to right click on the hard drive
icon, choose properties and Disk Cleanup.
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• Scandisk
• Scandisk is a Microsoft utility that was
  purchased originally from Norton which is now
  Symantec. Scandisk is designed to check the
  integrity of a computer hard disk drive to verify
  that there are no significant issues which could
  cause issues with your computer data.
• To run Scandisk follow these steps.
• Double-click My Computer
• Highlight a local hard disk drive by clicking on
  it once.
  
• Right click the highlighted local drive
• Click properties
• Click the tools tab and click check now to check
  the drive for errors
  
• Check both boxes in the pop up window
• The computer will need to restart in order to run
  scandisk in a safe mode
  

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• Defrag
• The purpose of Disk defragmenting is to optimize
  the time it takes to read and write files to/from
  the disk by minimizing head travel time and
  maximizing the transfer rate. The used techniques
  include
• Moving all the index or directory information to
  one spot. Moving this spot into the center of the
  data, e.g. one third of the way in, so that head
  travel to data is halved compared to having
  directory information at the front
• Clustering files around the directory area
• Moving infrequently used files further from the
  directory area
  
• Obeying a user provided table of file
  descriptions to emphasize or ignore
  
• Making files contiguous so that they can be read
  without unnecessary seeking (defragmentation)

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THANK YOU FOR COMING Go to www.palmia.org/washw
indows.ppt to download a copy of this presentation
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