Computer Performance Tips

2) Shutdown Windows Icon.

Want an easy way to shut down Windows? Ryan Pfeifle of Thousand Oaks, California, suggests this approach: Right-click the desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Then type c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows (your path may differ), click Next, type a name for the shortcut, and click Finish. Double-click this icon anytime to exit Windows.

To create a keyboard shortcut for exiting, right-click the icon, select Properties from the menu, click the Shortcut tab, and click in the Shortcut key box. Press the keys you want to use to activate your shutdown shortcut (they must begin with Ctrl-Alt, Ctrl-Shift, or Shift-Alt).

If you want a shortcut that restarts Windows rather than simply shutting it down, change the command line in the Target box to read c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec (your path may differ)

Computer Performance Tips.

1) Fix Video Problems.

One common cause of some maladies (ranging from odd-looking shapes and colors on screen to an unreliable mouse to spontaneous rebooting) is a bad video driver. Troubleshoot for this by replacing your current driver with Windows generic VGA driver. Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Settings, Change Display Type. Under Adapter Type, select Change, Show all devices, and from the Manufacturers list, select (Standard display types). You may have to reboot. If the problem disappears, you've found the culprit. Its time to get the latest driver for you video card from the manufactures website.

Computer Performance Tips

Introduction
In this article I will clearly spell out the most effective steps you can take to increase the performance of your computer and enhance your computing experience.

More Memory (RAM)
If your computer has less then 256 MB of memory you may want to consider adding more. If you don’t know how much memory you have: right-click My Computer, go to Properties and look towards the bottom of the dialog box.

Memory is where the computer stores open files or programs in order to give the processor quick access. To put it simply more memory means more speed and stability. You can buy memory online or visit your local Best Buy where they can install it for you if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself.

Defrag your computer
Imagine a filing cabinet that is out of order, you would have to look harder for your files just as a computer would when it is fragmented. Over time your computer will become fragmented. When your computer is fragmented it has to work harder to do just about anything a computer can do. Defragging your computer is essential for computer performance and stability.

Diskeeper is by far the most effective and efficient defrag program I have ever used. With Diskeeper you can defrag your computer without having to close other programs. You also have a “set it and forget it” feature that enables you to set your computer to defrag any time without having to think about defragging ever again. Most notably this defrag program gives your computer a clear performance boost.

Remove adware & spyware
If you frequently receive popups while not surfing the web you may have excessive amounts of adware or spyware on your computer. By removing the adware and spyware you will not only receive a performance boost but you will enhance your computing experience by removing bothersome ads.

Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy are both free programs that will scan your computer for adware and spyware and allow you to remove it with ease.

Take back the web
Firefox is a new web browser that is faster and more secure then Internet Explorer. With Firefox you can download and install extensions which “plug in” and give the browser more functions. For example I currently have extensions that tell me the weather and block online advertisements. Download and install this program today and replace your current browser which most likely is Internet Explorer.

To Speed Up Your Computer's Performance

Free Up Disk Space

By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility 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.
•	Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
•	Empty the Recycle Bin.
•	Remove Windows temporary files.
•	Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
•	Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Why Does My Computer Keep Slowing Down?

When your computer comes from the factory with it's default settings, it has been optimized to run properly. Over time, as you add files and software - and just as importantly, remove files and software - your computer gets farther and farther away from it's optimal settings. To put this in perspective, it would be like adding parts to your car, and then removing some other parts and then adding more parts after that. Finally, your car doesn't run very well anymore.
More specifically, there are several primary areas that could be causing your computer to run slow. The most likely reason is that your registry has become corrupt and your system is essentially running in circles with its internal processing.
The second most common problem is that you have too many programs running behind the scenes. In this case, we're not talking about the programs you know about that are running at the bottom of your task bar, such as Outlook Express or your internet browser window. But behind the scenes, there can be literally hundreds of programs of various sizes running in the background. These are eating up your computer's available processing capacity and can bring your system to a literal stand still.
To determine if your system is in fact running slow because of problems in your registry, you will need to run a self diagnostic program such as . This easy to use program will perform a deep scan on your computer and will report back on any issues or problems it finds for you at no charge - which means you can figure out what is wrong without having to buy anything in advance or pay a technician to essentially perform the same function.
Programs such as work by scanning all of your files and hard drives and then creates a cue report of any problems if finds. It's not uncommon to find out that your computer has literally hundreds of irregular settings and errors - in fact when we did a test of the program on a computer in our office, it found 916 errors on the initial trial scan.
The main advantage of using a registry repair program is it will instantly fix the majority of the problems that are slowing down your computer quickly and safely - and is a whole lot cheaper than having a technician look at your computer. It also has a feature that allows you to stop programs from loading when you turn on your computer which is often a problem for older systems with too many start up applications trying to get started every time you boot your machine up. In addition, Registry Patrol will also clean what is called your cache files which will dramatically speed up your internet performance.
For those of you running the Windows XP system, you might also want to consider the program which offers several more advanced features than the Registry Patrol application, including the ability to completely optimize your entire XP operating system.

Diffrence between Window vista and Winodow XP.

The major Differences between Windows Xp & Vista are :


Windows Vista & Windows XP

1. Bitlocker Option available Windows XP has . No Bitlocker option
- Bitlocker drive encryption,
Bitlocker on volume
Prevents hard drive from hackers

2. Windows Vista has Windows Defender tool Windows XP has No Windows Defender tool available
- prevents from spyware & unwanted
S/W installing on computer

3. Windows Vista has Parental control Feature Windows XP has No Parental control Feature
- This option enables parents to restrict
Children’s which sites, games .software
to use & not

There are some notable differences between Windows XP and Windows Vista. NetMeeting has been replaced by Windows Collaboration while MSN Explorer has been removed completely.

The "My" prefix on "My Computer", "My Document", etc. has also been dropped.

Windows Vista also no longer supports older motherboards technologies like EISA bus and advanced power management (APM).

Which is better Windows vista or LInux?

So, which really is better for the desktop: Vista or Linux?

I've been working with Vista since its beta days, and I started using Linux in the mid-90s. There may be other people who have worked with both more than I have, but there can't be many of them. Along the way, I've formed a strong opinion: Linux is the better of the two.

But, now that Vista is on the brink of becoming widely available, I thought it was time to take a comprehensive look at how the two really compare. To do this, I decided to take one machine, install both of them on it, and then see what life was like with both operating systems on a completely even playing field.

My first decision was to acquire a new system. I think almost anyone -- unless they have a loaded gaming system -- will make the same decision. The folks up in Redmond can tell you until they turn blue in the face that Vista Premium Ready needs only a 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB of system memory, and a graphic card with support for DirectX 9 graphics, a WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) driver, and 128 MB of graphics memory. They lie like rugs.

You can no more run Vista, with its pretty Aero interface, on a system like that than you can ride a bicycle on an interstate. Yes, you might get on the road, but you're not going to enjoy it and you'll be in danger of getting over run at any moment.

A modern Linux, like SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) or Ubuntu 6.10, runs well on such a system. Vista with all the trimmings? Forget about it. It's not happening.

So, from the get-go, Vista starts with a knock against it. If you own a PC that's over a year old, and haven't upgraded it, chances are you won't be able to run high-end Vista. Last spring, Gartner, the research house, estimated that only half of the PCs then shipping could support Vista Premium. In other words, if you don't have a shiny new machine, you're not going to be running a shiny new Windows operating system.

That said, you can buy Vista Premium-capable systems now for about a grand without too much looking. I managed, I thought, to do it for only $800.

I went to a local Best Buy store after Christmas and I found an HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7360n PC floor model on sale. This high-end, for early 2006, system had originally listed for $1,200. Now, when you can find this one-time PC Magazine Editor's Choice, since it's no longer being made, you can pick up a brand new one for about a $1,000.

The m7360n comes with a hyper-threaded 2.8 GHz Pentium D 920 dual-core processor, 4 MB of L2 cache, an 800 MHz front-side bus, and 2 GB of DDR (double-data-rate) RAM. It also has a 300-GB SATA hard drive, a dual-layer, multi-format LightScribe DVD/CD burner, a DVD-ROM drive.

For peripherals and multimedia, the m7360n has six USB 2.0, two FireWire, one VGA, one S-Video, and one composite AV port. It also comes with a 9-in-1 memory card reader, 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet, 56K V.92 modem, and 802.11g WiFi. For graphics, it has an NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE video card which takes up 256 MB of the system's main RAM, Intel High Definition audio (aka Azalia) with 5.1-channel surround sound.

Not bad, eh?

I decided to give Vista every chance to strut its stuff, so I decided to install Vista Ultimate -- the top of the Vista line -- on it. For the Linux, I decided to go with SimplyMEPIS 6.01, which is 99 percent Ubuntu 6.06.

I chose MEPIS (the 32-bit version), rather than straight Ubuntu, for several reasons. The first, is that I prefer the KDE interface to GNOME, and I've never developed much affection for Kubuntu, the official KDE version of Ubuntu. Your Linux love affair may vary. The other reason is that the 1 percent that MEPIS adds to Ubuntu includes features that I really like a lot, such as easy interoperability with Windows domain and AD (Active Directory) networks.

You see, I run my computers on a business network that includes the Windows networking infrastructure, as well such old Unix standards as NFS (Network File System) and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). So, I prefer operating systems that can plug and play with Windows networks. Home users, who don't need to worry about such issues, will probably find genuine Ubuntu or Kubuntu fine for their purposes.

So, now it was time to rip out the m7360n's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Update Rollup 2. This was no great loss. But, the story of what happened next will need to wait for Part 2 of my series.

UNIX / Linux Command

access()
Used to check the accessibility of files

int
Access(pathname, access_mode)
Char* pathname;
int access-mode;
The access modes are.
04 read
02 write
01 execute (search)
00 checks existence of a file

& operator
execute a command as a background process.

banner
prints the specified string in large letters. Each argument may be upto 10 characters long.

break
is used to break out of a loop. It does not exit from the program.

Cal
Produces a calender of the current month as standard output. The month (1-12) and year (1-9999) must be specified in full numeric format.

Cal [[ month] year]

Calendar
Displays contents of the calendar file

case operator
The case operator is used to validate multiple conditions.

Case $string in

Pattern 1)
Command list;;
Command list;;

Pattern 3)
Command list;;
easc

cat
(for concatenate) command is used to display the contents of a file. Used without arguments it takes input from standard input is used to terminate input.

cat [filename(s)]
cat > [filename]
Data can be appended to a file using >>

Some of the available options are :
Cat [-options] filename(S)
-s silent about files that
cannot be accessed
-v enables display of non printinging characters (except tabs, new lines, form-

feeds)
-t when used with –v, it causes tabs to be printed as ^I’s
-e when used with –v, it causes $ to be printed at the end of each line
The –t and –e options are ignored if the –v options is not specified.

cd
Used to change directories

chgrp
Changes the group that owns a file.
Chgrp [grou –id] [filename]

chmod
Allows file permissions to be changed for each user. File permissions can be changed only by the owner (s).
Chmod [+/-][rwx] [ugo] [filename]

chown
Used to change the owner of a file.
The command takes a file(s) as source files and the login id of another user as the target.
Chown [user-id] [filename]

cmp
The cmp command compares two files (text or binary) byte-by-byte and displays the first occurrence where the files differ.
Cmp [filename1] [filename2] -1 gives a long listing

comm.
The comm command compares two sorted files and displays the instances that are common. The display is separated into 3 columns.
Comm. filename1 filename2
first displays what occurs in first files but not in the second
second displays what occurs in second file but not in first
third displays what is common in both files

continue statement
The rest of the commands in the loop are ignored. It moves out of the loop and moves on the next cycle.

cp
The cp (copy) command is used to copy a file.
Cp [filename1] [filename2]

cpio(copy input/output)
Utility program used to take backups.
Cpio operates in three modes:
-o output
-i input
-p pass