NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, November 2003
The President's Column
PC Maintenance
by Dale Oliver
d_oliver@swbell.net
(click to email author)


I’d like to thank John Gable of ABC Computer Company for his presentation during our October meeting despite the fact that he was recovering from a recent surgery. Now, that’s dedication. John discussed some fairly simple ways we can keep our computers running efficiently by stressing four major areas to be mindful of. I will list them in order of the most benefit received per effort expended.

Background Programs: Many modern software programs want to run some portion of themselves “in the background” while your computer runs, many times without your knowledge. We don’t necessarily specify that the programs do this. Often the software vendors take it upon themselves to set up their programs this way. What generally happens is that over time, literally dozens of software programs are constantly running on your computer without your knowledge. Many times you can’t see them, and you may often even be unaware of what they do. Having all of these background tasks running robs your computer of much-needed RAM memory, as well as processor clock cycles.

To see which programs are configured to automatically run each time you start your computer, you can use the system configuration utility that comes with Windows. Click the Start button, then click “Run...” Now, in the small window that appears, type “MSCONFIG” (without the quotes) and click the OK button. The System Configuration Utility window will appear. Click on the Startup tab to view the programs that automatically run each time you boot your computer. Chances are that you will be flabbergasted at all the “stuff” running on your computer without your knowledge. A lot of this software is taking up valuable system resources and doesn’t need to run.

John suggests un-checking as many of the entries in this list as possible, with the exception of the system tray, anti-virus or firewall programs, and any software related to your network (if you are running in a network environment). If you use a battery backup system that uses software to monitor the battery backup system or other similar critical software, it would probably be best to leave those items checked. You may want to experiment with these which items to check or un-check in order to get the most performance gain out of your system without sacrificing the features you need or want. It’s not terribly difficult to figure out what items do what with a little tinkering. If you have no idea what some of the entries do, and you don’t notice a change in your system when they are un-checked, chances are you didn’t need them in the first place.

Once you minimize the number of background programs running, your computer should boot up and run noticeably faster.

Hard Drive Fragmentation: We talked about keeping your hard drives in good health for an entire meeting, which you can read about on the club Web site at . John used a good visual example when he compared the data on a hard drive to bricks in a brick wall. When some bricks are taken out, put back, changed around, added, removed, restacked, etc., the order of the bricks becomes completely scrambled over time. Any time you want to retrieve a group of bricks associated with a desired task, you have to search all over the place to collect the desired group of bricks. A very similar thing happens to data on your hard drive over time and it is called fragmentation.

Fortunately, there is a very easy way to take care of disk fragmentation. Unless you prefer an aftermarket program to perform this task, there is a program that comes with Windows that will tidy up all of the data on your drive. The typical way to run it is to click the Start button, then click Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and finally Disk Defragmenter. If you have never defragmented your hard drive, or if has been a long time since you last defragmented it, the process could take quite a while to run. Depending on the speed of your computer and the amount of fragmentation, a worse case scenario could be that you would leave it running overnight. If you have a fast computer and you defragment your hard drive regularly, it may only take a matter of minutes.

John suggests that you defragment your hard drive weekly for optimum performance.

We also discussed the ScanDisk program, but I will skip going into the details of this topic in the interest of space. You will obtain the most performance gain by defragmenting your hard drive. If you want to learn more about ScanDisk, refer to the link to our Web site mentioned earlier in this article.

Quick Launch Programs: Another way to gain additional performance is to disable the Quick Launch toolbar. This is the toolbar at the bottom of your screen, typically just to the right of the Start button. It contains miniature icons that allow you to launch programs quickly. To disable the Quick Launch toolbar, right-click anywhere in the blank space of the icon bar at the bottom of your screen, select Toolbars from the pop-up menu that appears, then click on the Quick Launch choice to un-check it.

One potential drawback to disabling your Quick Launch toolbar (if you typically have numerous windows open at a given time) is that the “show desktop” icon goes away. This can be a handy way to get to your Windows desktop without having to manually minimize each individual window on the screen. If you can’t live without the “show desktop” icon, or other icons on the Quick Launch toolbar, John recommends that you only include the ones you use constantly.

Windows Desktop Icons: John recommends that you only keep icons on your desktop that are used on a daily basis. The Windows operating system allocates RAM memory for each icon on your desktop, the icons have to be displayed and oriented when you start your computer, and Windows has to re-display the contents of your desktop when a window is closed or minimized and the desktop (or a portion of the desktop) becomes visible.

A Windows desktop cluttered with numerous icons can cause a noticeable decrease in system performance. John suggests deleting all of the non-necessary icons, while being sure to keep My Computer, Recycle Bin, Internet Explorer, and Network Neighborhood on the desktop due to some finicky Windows details. If you are a fairly advanced computer user, and you are inclined to take the time to do it, there are also ways to get rid of these four icons.

ABC Computer Company: has offices in Springdale and Siloam Springs. The Springdale office can be reached at 479-872-0625. The Siloam Springs office can be reached at 479-524-8202. The e-mail address for ABC Computer Company is abcomp@swbell.net.

Wireless Internet Access
During the October meeting, John Gable of ABC Computer Company mentioned that wireless Internet access is now available in the Northwest Arkansas area. Upload and download speeds range from 200 KB/sec to 5.5 MB/sec, with plans starting at $39.95 per month. You can contact Springdale-based Dlux Information Systems at 479-751-5097, or visit their Web site at http://www.dluxlink.com for more information.

Note: One of our club members reminded us that wireless access can be adversely affected by strong storms or periods of heavy precipitation. You may also want to inquire about encryption of transmitted signals if privacy is a concern to you.

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