PC Memoirs

Having dealt with Windows operating systems (OS) all my life, I got into the habit of running a clean install of Windows every so often. I tended to try out new software quite a bit, and that, combined with little spyware and other memory-eating applications, usually rendered my computer to a slow piece of junk sitting next to my desk (though it always served as a good footstool).

Even the process of purging a virus, spyware, or just too many programs that you installed but don’t use, can be a huge pain and doesn’t guarantee your computer to work they way it did when you first installed Windows. You still may need to run troubleshooter, defragment your hard disk, clean up your hard disk, and limit programs that run automatically on startup.

Rather than doing all of these things, I would just run a clean install of Windows 7. The benefit is that my computer will feel like it’s brand new again (unless there was somehow hardware damage). The cons, however, are numerous due to essentially one huge cause:

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My friend Mitch just bought a new Dell Inspiron laptop and he encountered a small problem. The screen turned off after about a minute and a half every time he left it unattended. He asked me for help. I thought, that’s an easy fix, it must have something to do with the power settings. I went into Windows 7 Power Options and adjusted all settings so the screen never turns off. To my surprise, the laptop screen still did the same thing after a few minutes. It just went blank.

What I didn’t know then, and only found about later, is that Dell has an additional setting called Power Smart Energy Saving. It was set to dim the screen 90 seconds after you stop using the laptop. This is where you can find this setting:

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It is that time again. After a couple of years, I have to upgrade my laptop. My old one is getting slow and I really need a worthy replacement.

For some reason, my first, or most important criterion is design: I want my new laptop to be thin and good looking, but I don’t want to switch to Apple – at least not yet. I think (almost) everyone would agree that Apple Macbook Pro and Macbook Air are the best looking laptops in the industry. They are thin, sleek, light and shiny. Everything looks good on those models. They are not chunky, thick and heavy like most laptops with Windows systems. They are simply beautiful!

Now my question is: Why doesn’t someone create a laptop that can rival or match Apple’s designs?

Maybe I would even buy a Mac, but they are expensive and I’m not very familiar with the Mac Operating Systems (I know, you can use Windows on Macs too). I just don’t have much experience with Macs….On the other hand, this would be the perfect opportunity to learn!

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This guest post was contributed by Tibor Schiemann, President and Managing Partner, TuneUp blog.

Have you ever had trouble finding that file or email that you just know is on your PC? If your search has come up empty one too many times, there is likely something wrong with this Windows Vista and Windows 7 feature. Here are three common reasons why Windows Search might be plaguing you—and three easy ways to fix these issues.

1. First, the file or email you’re looking for might not have been indexed yet. Windows Search creates an index on your hard disk to enable extremely quick search results—it’s much faster to read a list of folders than to search through an entire hard disk. Typically, the most important files, like those stored under the “Documents”, “Pictures” and “Music” libraries as well as Start Menu entries and Internet Explorer history, are added to the index. If you use Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook, Windows Search will add all of your emails and contacts to the index, as well. Unfortunately, folders outside of these popular places are left out of the index.

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If you read my previous post on free antivirus software, you may remember that my top 3 programs were AVG, Avira Antivir and Avast. Avira was the top performer in independent tests and reviews and I was quite happy with it when I used it (for some reason, I switched to Avast recently). Now we have new challengers, such as Microsoft Security Essentials – but Avira beats even Microsoft, according to this test result.

Few days ago, I came across another promising free antivirus program: it’s called ZenOK Free Antivirus, and it’s designed to stop viruses before they make their way into your computer. The program offers virus, spyware and malware protection. A big plus for this program – next to its great detection rate – is the fact that it only uses 0.1% of your computer’s resources. That means your computer won’t slow down when you use real time and full system scans. If you wish to perform a quick scan instead, you can use the ultra-light file scan.

ZenOK protects against viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, bots, root-kits and phishing Web sites. It also blocks attacks from the Web that exploit your software’s vulnerabilities. In addition, it offers boot up protection and hourly updates, so your ZenOK virus definitions are never out of date.

As mentioned above, the system doesn’t use many resources, but if you ever feel the need to turn it off, just select “snooze” and it will be deactivated.

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