After much fanfare, Firefox 3 was released June 16th and was downloaded more than 8 million times during the first 24 hours alone. I was one of those who installed it within hours of it's release and I'm having a great experience so far. The most notable improvement for me is the increased speed and performance. The previous version was slow to start up and there was a slight hesitation when opening pages, but the new version is very smooth, with no lag. The decreased memory usage is also…
In Windows Speed Up Tips we talked about ways to help recoup some of the original speed of your computer. Today we'll talk about more ways to increase your computer's performance.
More “Juice”
The fastest route to seeing a noticeable difference is to add more RAM. To view how much "memory" your computer currently has installed, right-click the My Computer icon and click properties. In the general tab, towards the bottom of the window, you will see your computer processor, along with it's speed and amount of memory installed…
photo: Accidental Angel
Most of us surf online without giving another thought to all the malware lurking about. Don't be a statistic. Have an Antivirus program running at all times and keep it updated. Most Antivirus software is "set it and forget it", which means that it will do what it needs to do to protect you, silently in the background. If it finds something suspicious or dangerous on your PC, it will neutralize the threat or give you options…
Windows XP SP3 is currently available via Windows Update and Windows Download. It is expected to become available via Automatic Updates between June and July. SP3 includes more than 1,000 fixes. An update of that magnitude should only be done after creating a backup of your computer, just in case something goes wrong. I successfully upgraded all four of our PCs…
photo: LuChOeDu
Rumors are circulating that a new version of Microsoft Windows is already in the works and is expected to be released by the end of next year. According to articles in Computer World and Internet News, Windows 7 is planned for release late next year and will use less memory, be more efficient and less bloated than Windows Vista. For now, the photos circulating show Windows 7 looking very similar to Vista but that is expected to change by the time the operating system is ready to ship….
How many times has any of these happened to you? You're visiting a website and see some great new software. You install the software and you're not satisfied with it, but when you try to uninstall the program, it doesn't uninstall properly. You finished working on your masterpiece in your text program or graphics program and a day or so later your hard drive dies or your PC gets a virus…
Adobe issued an Update for Adobe Flash which is used in Internet Explorer and Firefox. The update patches seven security vulnerabilities and users are advised to update their Flash players without delay because several of them could be used by attackers to hijack machines running the vulnerable older version of Flash. You can update…
Don't you just love the speediness of new computers? In time however, start up time takes longer and longer. Eventually your daily computing becomes a chore because the PC takes longer to respond when you click something or open a program. Sometimes you're left twiddling your fingers while your PC is just chugging along without the original speed it had when you first bought it. If this scenario seems familiar, here are a few tips that can help…
A PC needs a little preventive maintenace to ward off sluggishness and errors. Here are three simple steps that you can take to help keep your PC working smoothly. The following tips work for Windows XP and Vista.
Get rid of clutter by running Disk Cleanup. You will find Disk Cleanup in your System Tools folder which you can reach by going to your Start menu, All Programs, Accessories, System tools. Once you click the Disk Cleanup tool, you will need to select the drive you want to clean up. Choose C and wait while the program scans your drive. Once it finishes scanning…
It seems that lately there have been a lot of security vulnerabilities found in many of the most commonly used software. Unfortunately, many of us don't have the time (or desire) to go through all our installed software looking for updates just to stay safe online. Here's one solution; instead of having to subscribe to vulnerability reports and sift through security advisories (many which have nothing to do with your installed programs), you can…