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