Windows Troubleshooting, Optimizing, Free Applications and MorePosted by Gates French on May 11th, 2021 Some the simplest way to optimize Windows would be to just flat out switch off some the useless or unneeded services that run automagically on every Windows base install. One such service may be the Indexing service included in every install of Windows. it really is probably one of the most useless services found running in the background of Windows which is saying quite a lot if you ask me. What is does is it indexes files as they are saved to your hard disk drive when you search your drives the search could be completed faster. I discover that very few people actually use this feature also to top it off I have tried multiple searches with and without this enabled and the difference is none roughly small you will never view it should you choose use that function. This service will however slow your machine down as each and every file will undoubtedly be indexed as you save it to the hard drive. Stopping this service is a very highly encouraged optimization. On how to stop this service you will need to click on the start menu button within the lower left section of your screen. Once you do this then click computer. You need to enter Windows Explorer and also see your hard disk drive(s), any floppy and/or CD/DVD ROM drive(s) amongst others. Right click your hard disk drive ( you may have more than one and this needs to be done to each ) and click on the properties option in the bottom of the pop up. On this pop up you will notice a check box which has "Index this drive for faster searching". Uncheck this box and click apply. This may take a while, but is worth it. While read more are with this page you can run disk cleanup to help with stuffed hard drives. This to can take quite a long time, but will help in long run. Also when you have this pop up box open you really should click the tab that says Tools at the top of it. With this new tab you have options to check your disks for errors, which may be helpful at times, and to defragment your hard drive(s). Defragmenting your hard drive(s) is really a common, very basic optimization that many people either forget about or never knew about. All Windows filesystems save files on the disk in clusters which are in sequential order. That is fine as long as you never delete a file, but that isn't realistic. Easy way to explain this is to take four files, lets provide them with names of A, B, and C for simplicity sake. File A takes up 3 spaces on the disk, B is next to it at 2 spaces and C occupies 5 spaces. If you delete file B and save a new file such as D that would use up 3 spaces, Windows will delete B and complete its spot with the initial 2 parts of D and place the 3rd part after file C. This forces the computer to learn the first 2 elements of D and then move over C to learn another part decreasing read times and hurting overall performance of any program using file D. This is called fragmentation and can become a huge problem over the course of years or even months. This is why defragmenting your hard drive(s) is so important to system performance. This technique will move all pieces of a file and place them next each other so they can be read a lot more efficiently. Troubleshooting Windows is often as easy as using the built in support and help feature in Windows or by using Google to find the error message you got so you can find what others have done to correct the issue you're facing. Windows also has a recovery console if you have the original install disk, you merely put it in and start the computer. Unless your BIOS has been altered it should either boot from the disk or ask you if desire to. Each issue has its own method of being solved so an easy troubleshooting guide can not easily fit into this article. There are many programs out there that offer various services. Many are free and some of those actually do what they say they'll. Some of the best for a few samples of each type are as follows: SpyWare removal: SpyBot search and destroy- includes passive protection built into browsers Ad-Aware-can be utilized in tandem with Spybot to catch more spy/malware Virus protectors and scanners: Avira-usually rated as a detailed second on free virus protectors and the one I use most often. AVG-is usually in 3rd place, but has made a strive forward and is closing the gap. Avast-has been the best free virus protector for a while and is rated better than most and equal to the very best paid virus protectors out there. Office applications: Openoffice- can save files in Microsoft Office format if that is your thing so less worries on that side, but Sun Microsystems, which produces this free open source software, has been recently bought out by Oracle. This might endanger this project, I advise getting this software although it is still widely available. Messengers: Of course the usual of msn, yahoo, etc. etc. Pidgin-Can be used to connect to all the most popular messenger system around in one program. Lastly to be discussed this is actually the os's besides Windows. Most Windows converts have visited Apple's Operating System that is based off of the same unix kernal that bsd and linux are. I have seen many say Mac has more in common with the BSD OSs than with the linux ones lately. In the event that you haven't tried these operating system I can offer you some guidance here. Make sure you read some literature on each before you try to use these as this will save you a great deal of headaches, also look at each ones forums and read what problems new users of every one are having being an idea of what you may be facing. Apple has been closing the gap on being able to run the same programs offered to Windows users and much of these software database is actually superior to Windows. I can't speak much on BSD as I have not had lots of time to spend with it, but I can make a few suggestions about the linux side.Like it? Share it! More by this author |