How to make a computer faster: 4 ways to speed up your PC

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer, help increase your PC speed, and help keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools installed on your computer, plus a few safe and free downloads, to help make your computer faster, maintain your computer efficiently, and help safeguard your privacy when you’re online.

Note: Some of the tools mentioned in this article require you to be logged on as an administrator. If you aren’t logged on as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user account.

1. Remove spyware, and help protect your computer from viruses

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the websites you visit to user names and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer’s performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using Malwarebytes. This scan is a free service that helps check for and remove viruses. You should also download Microsoft Security Essentials for free to help guard your system in the future from viruses, spyware, adware, and other malicious software (also known as malware). Microsoft Security Essentials acts as a spyware removal tool and includes automatic updates to help keep your system protected from emerging threats.

2. Free up disk space

The Disk Cleanup tool helps you to free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

– Remove temporary Internet files.
– Delete downloaded program files, such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets.
– Empty the Recycle Bin.
– Remove Windows temporary files, such as error reports.
– Delete optional Windows components that you don’t use.
– Delete installed programs that you no longer use.
– Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

To use Disk Cleanup:

Windows 7 users

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

2. When Disk Cleanup has calculated how much space you can free up, in the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.

3.  Clear the check boxes for files that you don’t want to delete, and then click OK.

4.  When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner, performing better, and potentially increasing your PC speed.  For more options, such as cleaning up System Restore and Shadow copy files, under Description, click Clean up system files, and then click the More Options tab.

Windows Vista users

1. In the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.

2. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, choose whether you want to clean up your own files only or all of the files on the computer.

3. If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.

4. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.

5. When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then, to confirm the operation, click Delete files. Disk Cleanup then removes all unnecessary files from your computer. This may take a few minutes.

The More Options tab is available when you choose to clean files from all users on the computer.

Windows XP users

1.  Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

2.  In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.

3.  Clear the check boxes for files that you don’t want to delete, and then click OK.

4.  When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and potentially performing better.

3. Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk as a file is opened (to piece it back together). The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter (sometimes shortened to Defrag by users) is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer’s hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end to end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals (weekly is optimal), there are other times you should run it, too, such as when:

– You add a large number of files.
– Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
– You install new programs or a new version of the Windows operating system.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

Windows 7 users

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

2. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze disk button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

3.  To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment disk button. In the Current status area, under the Progress column, you can monitor the process as it happens. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

4.  To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.

5.  To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

6.  You can also schedule the Disk Defragmenter to run automatically. (Your computer might even be set up this way by default.) Under Schedule, it reads Scheduled defragmentation is turned on and then displays the time of day and frequency of defragmentation. If you want to turn off automatic defragmentation or to change the time or frequency, click Configure schedule (or Turn on Schedule, if it is not currently configured to run automatically). Change the settings, and then click OK.

7.  To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, on the title bar of the window, click the Close button.

Windows Vista users

1.  Open Disk Defragmenter: Click the Start button, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2.  In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment and then click the Analyze diskbutton. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

3.  To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment disk button. In the Current status area, under the Progress column, you can monitor the process as it happens. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

4.  To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.

5.  To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

6.  You can also schedule the Disk Defragmenter to run automatically. (Your computer might be set up this way by default.) Click Modify schedule….

7.  In the Disk Defragmenter: Modify Schedule dialog box, choose how often, which day, and at what time of day you want defragmentation to occur, and then click OK.

8.  Click OK again.

Windows XP users

1.  Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

2.  In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

3.  To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note:In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented.  After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

4.  To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.

5.  To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

6.  To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, on the title bar of the window, click the Close button.

Running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis is a proven way to help keep your computer running quickly and efficiently. If you’d like to learn how to schedule these tools and others to run automatically, please read Speed up your PC: Automate your computer maintenance schedule.

4. Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

Run the Error Checking utility:

1.  Close all open files.

2.  Click Start, and then click Computer.

3.  In the Computer window (My Computer in Windows XP), right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.

4.  In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.

5.  Click the Check Now button.

6.  In the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7), select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.

7.  If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Tip: Only select the “Automatically fix file system errors” check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

To see the original article in its entirety click here.

Takeaway: The key to collaborating effectively is to find tools that make working with others easy and efficient. Jack Wallen shares a list of tools that have greatly improved the collaborative process for his projects.

You might notice that not all tools listed were actually designed specifically for the task of collaboration. Some are communication tools, whereas others serve a much broader purpose. No matter their original purpose, each one makes collaboration much easier. In the end, all that matters is that you can work with your collaborators without having to leave town, host a face-to-face meeting, or run up your phone bill.

1: Google Docs
That’s right. The mighty Google has finally added a level of collaboration to its documents. Google documents now have a discussion feature, which allows the creator of a document to invite participants to collaborate (discuss) on it. What’s nice about this feature is that it is in real time and can be saved for later reference. Google docs are gaining ground, people!

2: Track Changes
In both Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, anyone who is collaborating on a document can take advantage of track changes. If you’re collaborating on a document in either of these office suites and you aren’t using track changes, you have no idea what you are missing. The ability to show what has been changed (and by whom), as well as to easily accept or reject those changes, goes a long way toward streamlining the collaboration process. The only downfall to track changes is that it is not in real time. But not many tools allow you to collaborate in real time on documents.

3: Comments
Another collaboration feature in both Microsoft Office and LibreOffice is the ability to insert comments into text. This is often used in conjunction with track changes to explain a change or ask a question. Anyone who plans on collaborating must have this feature in their toolbox. If you don’t use comments, you wind up sticking notes inline — which often ends badly when the comments are not removed before publication.

4: Gobby/Kobby
Gobby and Kobby offer the same function — real-time collaboration on text documents in Linux. These tools serve as a sort of chat client with a built-in text editor. The primary audience for both Gobby and Kobby is the developer, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used for ordinary document collaboration. The downfall? Neither one supports the most popular word processor formats (such as .doc, .rtf, .and odt).

5: Instant messaging
I know, I know. IM isn’t technically a collaboration tool. But if you really think about it, how is it not? You can fire up your document, log on to your instant messaging client, and start chatting with your collaborators in real time about the work. No, you do not see changes as they are made, and any updates to the document are not made for all to see. But the truth of the matter is, the primary function of collaboration is communication, and using an instant messaging tool is a fantastic way to communicate.

6: Zoho
Zoho is an incredible Web-based collaboration tool. With Zoho, you can collaborate via chats, discussions, email, meetings, projects, wikis, and more. There are so many ways that Zoho helps you to collaborate, it would be serious feat to actually use them all for a single project. Although Zoho has a free plan for its service, you get only 1 GB of space for files. But its premium service is only $5 per month, so if you are a frequent collaborator and you’re looking for a great Web-based tool to facilitate collaboration, Zoho might be the perfect fit.

7: Campfire
Campfire is another Web-based collaboration tool, but it’s aimed at the corporate or enterprise-level crowds. With plans that reach all the way to 100 chatters and 25 GB of storage (a plan that costs $99 per month), Campfire can enable collaboration in larger settings or even classrooms. Campfire also packs in other enterprise-friendly features, such as searchability and an iPhone app for mobile collaboration. An extra benefit of the pricier plans is that they incorporated SSL for higher security.

8: MindMeister
MindMeister is a Web-based mind-mapping tool. Not all collaborators are familiar with (or comfortable with) mind-mapping tools. But for those who are, there is no better way to brainstorm an idea than a mind-mapping tool. Having a tool for mind-mapping available online is a brilliant way to get those ideas out of your head and into reality. MindMeister has three plans: Free (three maps), Premium — $59 per year (unlimited maps, enhanced security, upload files), and Business — $9 per month (unlimited maps, edit maps offline, branded subdomain, auto backups). MindMeister also has an app for iPhone and iPad.

9: TextFlow
TextFlow is an online document comparison tool. It allows you to generate change reports from Word and PDF documents. You can compare up to seven documents at once, see the changes in context, view the changes in a summary report, and even view the change history. Although the layout of the changes can take a bit of acclimation, the benefits of using such a tool far outweigh the somewhat awkward layout.

10: Kablink
Kablink is a set of open source, online collaboration tools. The set consists of Teaming, iFolder, and Conferencing. Teaming includes document management, workflow, expertise location, federated search, and a custom Web form generator. ifolder is a secure storage solution similar to that of Dropbox, but it also allows you to invite other iFolder users to share your folders. Conferencing is a real-time meeting solution that allows application sharing, whiteboards, presentations, and more. All three of the Kablink tools are cross platform.

Other tools?
If you try out the tools on this list, you should be able to find a collaboration solution that meets your needs. Although you may have to use a combination of tools, you should be able to find everything you need to get your collaboration up and running with very little effort.

Have you worked successfully with some of these tools? What other solutions would you add to the list?

To view the original article in it’s entirety Click Here

Hopefully, why you should never trust Facebook is obvious by now. Perhaps you feel like you still need it, though — or stubbornly refuse to believe it is really all that bad, whether because you think it is not much of a risk or just do not believe the evidence.

You may take all reasonable precautions, including using no personally identifiable or sensitive information in your account or profile data. Maybe you use a password and email address for the account that you use for nothing else, and refuse to communicate with anyone who actually knows any personally identifiable information or secrets about you on Facebook. Even so, there are risks.

Facebook clearly is not concerned with your privacy any more than the absolute minimum required to keep itself in business. There’s no such thing as a trusted brand, but there is certainly such a thing as a brand that is thoroughly suspicious — and Facebook seems to fit the description when it comes to personal privacy. Any time Facebook appears to care about your privacy, keep in mind that it took Congressional posturing to keep the corporation in line even to that small degree.

It is clear that even when Facebook offers something that looks like some kind of privacy protection, the offer is not a promise, and relying on it is a recipe for disappointment. With that in mind, the problem of protecting even the most minimal sense of privacy while using Facebook seems insurmountable. Thanks to the efforts of a number of hackers and entrepreneurs who actually care about privacy — not only theirs, but that of others as well, even if only because it serves as a convenient business model — there are some options that can help at least a little.

In no particular order:

1. SaveFace
Untangle offers the SaveFace bookmarklet, a script that can be saved as a bookmark in your browser. When you click a bookmarklet, it does “something” — usually involving whatever page you happen to be visiting at that moment. In the case of SaveFace, you can visit your Facebook page then click on the bookmarklet to rest your privacy settings to Private. According to Untangle, it currently covers Contact Information; Search Settings; Friends, Tags, and Connections; and Personal Information and Posts.

2. ReclaimPrivacy.org
A similar bookmarklet is offered by ReclaimPrivacy.org. Unlike SaveFace, the purpose of ReclaimPrivacy.org’s tool is to scan your Facebook settings and detect certain types of privacy vulnerabilities in your account settings. In theory, at least, it should be more thorough than SaveFace — but less automated as a means of protecting yourself.

3. Connect In Private
At ConnectInPrivate there is an annoying tablike thing floating over the left-hand side of the page. Take a closer look: it reads “Secure Your Facebook Profile”. If you click on that, it takes you to a Facebook application that offers a fairly comprehensive Facebook privacy feature set. Of course, what it provides is little more than a convenience layer over manually adjusting your own Facebook privacy settings, but it can be used for free and, if you like that kind of thing, you might find it valuable.

Using Connect In Private’s Facebook privacy scanner is a remarkably tedious and uncomfortable process for something so simple. It involves reading, and thinking about, a series of questions about what kind of privacy preferences you have — in ways that are poorly defined, and requiring Facebook account access that should make the average security concerned user hesitate. Access to the source code is not exactly a matter of easy access the way it is with the JavaScript in the ReclaimPrivacy.org bookmarklet and the .js page it references, either.

A final word
Connect In Private has one definite advantage over the other tools, though: it is more actively maintained. As of this writing, ReclaimPrivacy.org’s script is not compatible with current Facebook privacy settings, and there is a note on the page to that effect. SaveFace is far from a complete solution, for that matter. None of them are perfect, and there is always a risk if you trust your private data to a site like Facebook. Each of them might help a little, though.

In the end, I for one find it difficult to trust the Facebook application offered by Connect In Private. Your mileage may vary.

To read the original article in it’s entirety Click Here

What Is Rogue Anti-virus Software?

It is almost unheard of in this day and age to be online without using anti-spyware and anti-virus software to safeguard your computer against viruses and other malicious code. It’s not surprising to see the prevalence of rogue anti-virus software.

Also called scareware, or rogue security software, or smitfraud, this type of software is also most commonly defined as malware—it is designed specifically to damage or disrupt your computer system. In this case, not only is the software going to disrupt your system, it’s going to try and trick you into making an unsecure credit card purchase.
Rogue anti-virus programs usually appears in the form of a fake Windows warning on your computer system that reads something like, you have a specific number of viruses on your computer (usually in the hundreds) and that this software has detected those viruses. To get rid of these viruses, you’re prompted to buy the full-version of the antivirus software (which is really rogue antivirus software).

The good news is that you probably do not have a computer that is infested with hundreds of viruses as the rouge software claims. The bad news is that the rogue antivirus software itself is on your computer and you must remove it. Removal is hindered as rouge software can lock the control panel and the the Add/Remove Programs function to prevent you from removing it easily.

Other things that may be disrupted by the rogue software include being unable to visit reputable and valid anti-virus and malware Web sites, being able to install legitimate antivirus software and also being unable to access your desktop.

The rogue software wants to stop users from removing the program and proceeding with the purchase instead. It’s important to remember that by purchasing the “claimed full version to remove the viruses” you will be submitting your personal information to unscrupulous persons and may also end up being a victim of credit card or identity theft.

Common names of rogue antivirus software include; AntiVirus (2007, 2008, and 2009), MS-Antispyware, XP AntiVirus (2007, 2008, and 2009), Home Antivirus 2009, SpyWareGuard, Malware Cleaner, Extra Antivirus, AV AntiSpyware, SpywareProtect2009, WinPC Defender as well as many other names.

How Does a Computer Get Infected with Rogue Antivirus Programs?
The reason these rogue anti-virus programs are successful (for the malicious coders) is because the warning screens very closely resemble legitimate Windows warning screens, plus the rouge software program names closely resemble or sound like legitimate antivirus programs.

When you load an infected Web site you might see a warning screen pop up and think that it is a legitimate Windows warning. Users unknowingly are tricked into downloading the software because they believe the warning to be a legitimate Windows messages.

You might also be on a Web site trying to view a video and a screen may pop-up telling you that you need to download a codec to view the file. The window prompting you to download the codec looks legitimate, however you are not going to download a codec—instead you will receive one of the many rogue antivirus software programs.

In April of this year, it was also reported that systems that had been previously infected with Conficker, found this worm had began installing rogue antivirus programs on infected machines. In the early cases this turned out to be a rogue application called SpywareProtect2009. Kaspersky researchers reported this was a typical rogue program that offered to clean the computer for $49.95.

Lastly, if you use file sharing networks you also risk downloading a rogue antivirus as it can be easily hidden inside a legitimate program—that you may or may not be legitimately downloading.
How to Spot Rogue Antivirus Warnings

For the most part, you need to look at the windows that are popping up and the name of the program being shown. If you know the program name of the antivirus and spyware software you use, then seeing a different name in the warning window is the first clue. Also, Windows itself doesn’t warn you of a virus. Legitimate warnings on your system would come from the anti-virus program you have installed, not a random Windows operating system style pop-up window. A great resource for learning how to spot these malicious programs through fake warning messages can be found on bleepingcomputer.com. This page lists the text of some of the more common false warning screens, including the following:

Malware Cleaner: Trojan detected! A piece of malicious code was found in your system that can replicate itself if no action is taken. Click here to have your system cleaned by Malware Cleaner.

AV AntiSpyware: Spyware Alert! Your computer is infected with spyware. It could damage your critical files or expose your private data on the Internet. Click here to register your copy of AV AntiSpyware and remove spyware threats from your PC.
How Do I Get Rid of Rogue Antivirus Programs?

It can be a difficult task to get rogue anti-virus programs off your computer. To complicate the matter, there are many variations of this malicious program and not all variants can be removed in the same way. This is not something that novice computer users may be able to deal with on their own.

Also, due to the popularity of these infections and people searching for answers on how to remove the program a number of scam programs also exist that lead users to believe it will remove the infection. Yes, these programs that claim to rid your system of Antivirus 2009 (or whichever variant you have been infected with) will scan your system and then prompt you for a credit card number so you can download a full version to remove the infection. Sound familiar? It should. This is a vicious cycle that users can unwittingly become trapped in.

Still, the good news is that in many instances you can get rid of the rouge antivirus program without wiping and formatting your hard drive. If you are already infected and you cannot access legitimate security related Web sites, you will need to download the following programs from a second computer and burn them to CD to run on the infected computer.

WARNING: Before running any of the following programs, you should turn off System Restore (you won’t be able to use System Restore as this deletes all restore points). If you don’t turn it off, the programs may not be able to access those system files to clean them. If you are infected the System Restore is not going to return you to an earlier uninfected date anyway. You can turn it back on after you have successfully removed the rouge antivirus program.

The quickest way, and first thing to try is to download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to get rid of the rogue antivirus. On it’s own this will usually rid your computer of the problem. If Malwarebytes didn’t have the desired results, or you simply want to do a total and complete system clean, you will want to use a combination of CCleaner, Malwarebytes, Asquared, and SpyBot Search and Destroy. These programs all offer freeware versions.

NOTE: In some cases, the rogue anti-virus may block one or more of these legitimate programs. If this is the case, you will need to open the folder where you installed the program on your hard drive and rename the executable file (.exe) to anything other than the program’s name. (e.g. rename mbam.exe to aaa.exe).

Once you have run all the programs, be sure to go back and run CCleaner a final time to get rid of dead registry links from having the rouge antivirus removed. Continue to run the registry option of this program until no problems are found.

Here are additional removal resources:
bleepingcomputer.com: How to remove Extra Antivirus
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove AV AntiSpyware
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove WiniBlueSoft
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove HomeAntivirus 2009
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove Antivirus 2009 (Antivirus 09)
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove PAntispyware09
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove Virus Sweeper
bleepingcomputer.com: How to uninstall and remove WinPC Antivirus
Kaspersky Technical Support and Knowledge Base: How to disinfect rogue spyware

DID YOU KNOW…
In December 2008 it was reported that a Google sponsored link pointed to a malicious Web site where users were redirected to a spoofed CNET Download.com site with offers to download a “spyware free” copy of Winrar. This file included the rogue antivirus program “AntiSpyware2008” (Source)