Help! My PC is slow

I frequently hear the complaint, "My computer is so slow."  It is a big general problem.  You even see TV comercials for products that make your computer faster. Beware, what these programs do is fairly limited and you can do more yourself  - for free!

Many problems with Window computers can be resolved with some simple steps.

First, do you tend to leave your computer on for days or weeks at a time? If you do, temporary files will build up on your hard drive, and your computer’s memory can get cluttered with remnants of everything you have done. By rebooting, or restarting your computer, you can clear out these temporary files and refresh your memory, thus improving your computer’s performance.

Second, some (most) programs do not do well at cleaning up after themselves, especially if they crash or hang.  Even rebooting your computer may not be able to clean up the temporary files left behind.  Microsoft provides a simple utility built into Windows to clean up your hard drive: cleanmgr.exe.  (Open "My Computer" and right click on your C: drive, click on "Properties", next to the pie chart you will find a button labeled, "Disk Cleanup.")   When you launch this program, it will run for a bit and present you some options as to which types of files you want to remove.  Select "Downloaded Program files", "Temporary Internet files", "Recycle Bin" and "Temporary Files"  then click "OK."  If prompted for confirmation, click "Delete Files."

Third, at times some of the files on your hard drive can get corrupted or confused due to programs crashing or hanging.  Another Windows built in utility, Check Disk, will check for, and repair these issues: chksdk.exe.

 (Open "My Computer" and right click on your C: drive, click on "Properties", click on the Tools tab.)  At the top of the Tools tab, is the Error checking option, click the "Check Now" button.  You will now see a small window with the Check Disk options; both options should be checked, then click the "Start" button.  Now since this program needs full control of the disk, it will tell you that it cannot run at this time and Select that option.  Now reboot your computer.  During the startup process the Check Disk will run automatically. It may take quite a while, depending upon the size of your hard disk.

The fourth item for today is to defragment your hard disk, which re-organizes the locations of the files to make access quicker (it's a it more complicated than that, but that is the net result.  (Again, open "My Computer" and right click on your C: drive, click on "Properties", click on the Tools tab.) in the middle of the Tools tab, click on "Defragment Now..."  Now select your C: drive and click "Defragment Disk."  Again, depending upon the size of your drive and how full it is, this can take quite some time.

If after performing the above steps, your computer is still running slow, you will need some additional tools to fix your problem(s).  Check back soon, I will be writing about my favorite tools over the course of the next few weeks.

Bill
MrJantzen.com

Happy Birthday, Barbi Benton

Well, it has been a while since my last post. I am easily distracted!

Today is Barbi Benton's birthday. Many years ago she was Hugh Hefner's girlfriend and many a young man's dream date. Now she is 60 years old!

We should also note that today is the anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. Yet on a lighter note today is National Kazoo Day and I will be driving my family crazy with mine all day!

In an interesting twist of timing, King Henry VII of England was born on this day in 1485 and King Henry VIII died on this day in 1547.

It is hot!

It has been hot and humid all week. Today is no different - upper 80's today. To get a break, I have gone to my bedroom to cool off with our trusty window air conditioner. After checking my email I was thinking about the heat and decided to look for "It's So Hot!" jokes on the internet. After reading one woman's detailed directions for baking cookies in your hot car, I found the standard lines, like:

• It's so hot, my steak Tartar was well-done by the time it got to the table.
• It's so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk and toast your English muffin too.
• It's so hot, your Odor Eaters have sent up a white flag.
• It's so hot, when you dig up potatoes, they're already baked.
• It's so hot, I saw two trees fighting over a dog.
• It's so hot, the cows are giving evaporated milk.

Then I found a few new ones (at least for me)

• It's so hot, Jesus turned the wine back into water!
• It's so hot, today I saw an Amish guy buying an air conditioner.
• It's so hot, that Dick Cheney waterboarded himself.

I hope you can find a cool spot or play in some cool water today. Stay safe!

Bill

H2IK

First, if you have never stopped by the Hulu.com site, give it a whirl. You can catch up of a missed episode of your favorite TV show, or even catch a movie and of course there are trailers for movies and shows as well.

I recently started watching a series called Defying Gravity. It is a science fiction series that is on ABC on Sunday evenings at 10:00. Since I am usually asleep by that time, I have been watching the show on Hulu. I am not going to give an in depth review of the series, but will say that I enjoy it and it is worth checking out.

All of this is background to a simple item in the show which I found humorous and wanted to share. They make reference to an H2IK sequence, where H2IK stands for Hell If I Know. It's a great way admit to a co-worker or friend that you don't have a clue without the boss catching on (unless your boss saw the show). Use this when the ID10T error doesn't fit.

Microsoft can't sell Word any more

Today, I saw the news that Microsoft can't sell Word any more. A Judge for the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas ruled that Microsoft willfully infringed on a patent held by i4i, a small company in Toronto, Canada. Under this ruling, Microsoft would not be allowed to sell its current version of Word in the United States, and must pay damages of about $290 million. Yet, Microsoft's stock went up today.

Microsoft will certainly file appeals. It may take years to finalize this issue. Microsoft will certainly pay massive amounts of money, even if just for lawyers. But, they have been here before. They almost make a habit of this. And in the end, they will either work something out with i4i, or buy i4i, or make coding changes and move on. That's what I would do.

Pre-Anniversary Lunch

This weekend my wife and I will celebrate out 29th anniversary. We went out for lunch today, Mary likes the Wayside Inn in Sudbury so we had a nice quiet lunch. We mostly just chilled out throughout the day. We went to the Concert on the Green in Framingham Centre for a while this evening. We brought our dogs (two male Shelties, one 10 years old and one 3 months old) with us to give them a walk. There were many little kids there that wanted to pet the dogs, fortunately they (the dogs) behaved well.


At this moment, the Red Sox are playing the Yankees. My wife, is a big Red Sox and is a little stressed as the score is 0 - 0 and they just finished the 9th inning. Now I find Baseball to be a bit too slow for my tastes, but I am a geek and can easily amuse myself with my laptop.

Let's get started...

A friend asked me about blogging today and I realized I really don't know that much about it. So, here I am a few hours later writing the first entry in my blog.

Blogging has become very common today and many people attempt to use blogging to promote their business, their political views or other beliefs, or even try to present helpful information to others. The majority of blogging appears to be the twenty-first century version of a diary or a journal. A public diary would have been unheard of a few generations ago, yet today we seem to be more willing to tell everyone the details of our private lives.

With that in mind, I do not plan to air my dirty laundry, but I will, from time to time share some of the funny or profound happenings in my life.

Your comments, especially encouraging ones are welcome.