May
9
You Aren’t Backing Up (You know who…)
May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Per the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® Americans are not backing their data up! Their study shows, while they are good at assimilating mass amounts of media, they are too lazy. Although this only constitutes 20 to 33% of them (depending on how you like to slice-n-dice statistics), per the study.
Products on the market make backing up much easier than ever before. I figure those that don’t back up are either lazy, cheap, or both. I did not even have to hire an outside paid research company to draft me a tin-can study with statistics.
If you are reading this you have a computer. If you value your data, get to it. Or you can call us for your computer repair. We are located in St. Louis, MO. 
May
4
Speed Up Windows Vista - Part II
May 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Vista ships with some utterly irritating features. These features are just plain resource hogs. Numerous posts in the blog are related to computer repair and improvement, Vista needs some focus for a bit.
Windows Vista Professional is more flexible than the Vista Home versions. The business version provides the user with options that are restricted in the home platform.
Vista’s desktop sidebar is what industry geeks refer to as eye-candy. It is based solely on your personal preference. Optimizing the computer is alway my primary objective for myself and for my customers throughout St. Louis. Numerous calls are made from our customers regarding slow computers. This posts addresses one thing we do to optimize Vista.
Windows Vista Sidebar is just an optional feature, but takes away resources like other gadgets. Collectively there are too many resources used in the theme, gadgets, and affects.
To remove Vista’s sidebar do the following:
- Right click on an unused area of the sidebar
- Select properties at the bottom of the sub menu that pops up
- Remove the check mark by “Start Sidebar when Windows starts”
- Click on the Ok button to make the change
The Vista sidebar will no longer start when you use Vista. Just one small change to squeeze a bit more juice for you and not for Vista.
May
3
Make Vista Less Irritating
May 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Windows Vista can drive anyone wacky over an attempt to ensure a safe computing experience. Have you ever attempted to do something as simple as change the fonts or install an application in Windows Vista? It is as though Windows Vista doesn’t trust you or is on a mission from hell to drive you nuts.
The User Account Control manages this irritating pop-up. You can turn the User Account Control feature off and this will remove some of the irritation.
Tasks that will trigger a UAC prompt (if UAC is enabled) include:
- Right-clicking an application’s icon and clicking “Run as administrator”
- Changes to files or folders in %SystemRoot% or %ProgramFiles%
- Installing and uninstalling applications
- Installing device drivers
- Installing ActiveX controls
- Changing settings for Windows Firewall
- Changing UAC settings
- Configuring Windows Update
- Adding or removing user accounts
- Changing a user’s account type
- Configuring Parental Controls
- Running Task Scheduler
- Restoring backed-up system files
- Viewing or changing another user’s folders and files
- Repairing a network connection (requesting a new IP address)
Here is how you can turn the UAC off as follows:
| 1. | Click Start, and then click Control Panel. |
| 2. | In Control Panel, click User Accounts. |
| 3. | In the User Accounts window, click User Accounts. |
| 4. | In the User Accounts tasks window, click Turn User Account Control on or off. |
| 5. | If UAC is currently configured in Admin Approval Mode, the User Account Control message appears. Click Continue. |
| 6. | Clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box, and then click OK. |
| 7. | Click Restart Now to apply the change right away, or click Restart Later and close the User Accounts tasks window. |