How to make your computer super fast?

As an IT student and also researcher, I always looking at my friend who at the same field get something called slow in their computer. Why this happen? I have thought about it and it may cause of lack of maintenance to their computer. Much weirder when their computer or laptop is much newer than I am, is working very slow than my computer. How is that?

But in today post I am going to tell you how to make your computer much faster. There is a lot of them, but I'll mention some of I know and works for me.

• Always defragment your computer hard disk. You can either use default defragmenter by Windows or using free software like SmartDefrag.
• Clean up hard drive disk space from temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation and more.
• Use free software Startup Delayer to load up Windows faster, It will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs.
• Turn off useless startup program. You can use the MSCONFIG utility to disable startup programs.
• Turn off the visual effects in Windows.
• Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the 10 best and free registry cleaners.
• One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs to remove spyware including Ad-Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.
• Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer.
• Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista and 7
• Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry.
• Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space.
• Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance.
• Change the location of My Documents folder  on a separate partition or hard drive.
• Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.
• Learn to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware.
• Use a program called TeraCopy to speed up file copying. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 512 MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.
• Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications.
• Make sure that you have selected “Adjust for best performance” on the Performance tab in System Properties.
• If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance.Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions.
• Every once in a while run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup utility.
  Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel.
• Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup.
• Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.
• Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don’t want to install virus protection, use some of the free online virus scanners. 
• Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance.
• If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock your processor. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the ScanDisk or chkdsk utility.
• A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista to be slow, go with Windows XP. Switching to Mac or Linux is also an option.
• One of the easiest ways to speed up your PC is to simply reformat it. Of course, you want to backup your data, but it is the best way to get your computer back to peak performance.

So that's it. There are sure a lot of other techniques other than mentioned above. So feel free to try and of course you can share this if you like.

 Imagine if your computer are fast like this!

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svchost viewer software review

Today, while I googling around, well I like google for nothing, that's when I found this so called software named svchost Viewer. For many of us, including me, actually don't know what are svchost (service host) doing on our system. It is usually appear too many in task explorer, just like in my system. But killing it unknowingly may make the system unstable. This software shows what is the svchost is doing, whether it can be paused or stopped and let you know it exact task. Let see this software a bit.

 Too many svchost! What is it doing really?

The program shows what the svchost doing.

 This program also shows whether the svchost can be stopped or paused!

The list of task is shown on the left pane

Nice right? What you need to know about svchost is provided. What's more nicer is you dont even need to install to use this program and is fully free. 

Visit this site for more information and downloads the program.

http://svchostviewer.codeplex.com/

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How to save your hard disk space!

Do you store a lot of things in your hard drive till your hard drive's free space becoming low? Once your computer low on hard disk space, normal processes begin to slow down and your computer will run painfully slow. Of course there are a lots of other reasons why your computer might be running slowly, but this post is specifically for those who know they are running short on disk space.

So instead of having to delete your files or transfer all of your file to other external hard drives, you can try to free up some space on your computer by removing useless temporary files or system processes.

• Recycle Bin – This trash uses a percentage of your hard drive to store deleted files. While you were always deleting files and not aware to clean up this trash, it uses some space of your hard disk. That is why you run a low space right? then what should you do with these unused files that takes up a lot of space? Just clean the recycle bin! 

         How? There is two steps you can do.
First step is : Right click to the Recycle Bin and click Empty Recycle Bin.

First right click on the Recycle Bin on your desktop and click Properties.

On the Global tab, you can choose Use one setting for all drives or Configure drives independently. It’s usually better to configure the recycle bin for each drive independently since it’s based on the size of the drive, so 5% of a 50GB hard drive is much bigger than 5% of a 20GB hard drive. At the top you’ll see tabs for each partition you have on your computer.

By default, the slider bar is usually set at something like 12%, which is very high! Unless you are deleting huge files, there will never be a need for a recycle bin that size. A good size is from anywhere between 3 to 5% of your hard drive. Drag the slider bar and you just saved yourself a good amount of space, especially if you have large hard drives. My computer is set to 1% and I’ve never had a problem recovering a file from the bin!

2. Turn Off System Restore – Another handy little service that can get your computer back up and running sometimes, but again takes up a lot of extra space that is not needed. Also, System Restore only recovers Windows files, not any of your data. So having System Restore enabled on any other drive other than your C drive (where Windows is installed) is completely useless.
To fix this one, right click on My Computer and choose Properties.

Click on the System Restore tab.

As you can see from my computer, I have a C and a D drive of which system restore has been turned off on D. Again, this is because System Restore does not protect your data, it only protects Windows system files, so you don’t need it for any other drive other than the main system drive. If you click on the C drive and choose settings, you’ll get the dialog box to set the amount of space.

For system restore, a value between 2% to 4% will be fine. The default 12% wastes loads and loads of space! I have mine set to 2% and even with that, I still have over 10 restore points to recover from if I needed to.

3. Delete temporary Internet Explorer files – Ahhh…if you like to browse the Internet hardcore like I do, then you MUST clean out your temporary files every once in a while or else it will take up lots of space. And again, as with the Recycle Bin and System Restore, we can set the max size for the amount of storage for temporary Internet files. And again, it’s set really high by default!
Open IE and go to Tools, Internet Options.

On the options dialog, under Browsing History, click on Settings.

Now here you can type in a value for the amount of space to be used!! When I first did mine, it was set to 1GB!!! So I had 1 whole GB of storage being used by temporary files that were never going to be used again anyway! Change that value to something very small like 25MB or even less if you like. After doing this, you should click Delete under the Browsing History section and delete all of the current data there.

4. Actually, there is a 4th thing you can do to get some disk space back! If you’re like most people, you probably use StandBy mode on your computer by simply closing the cover or pressing the power button. No one really uses Hibernate mode because why use that when you can use StandBy, which is easier and a lot faster! I personally have never used it and don’t think I ever will, but it takes up a good amount of space on your computer.
Go to Start, Control Panel and choose Power Options. If you are in Category view, click Switch to Classic View at the top left. Then click on the Hibernate tab in the Power Options dialog:

Make sure it’s unchecked. The hibernate feature takes up the amount of space equal to your RAM, so in my case I was wasting another 1GB of space!!!

Now you hopefully just saved yourself a couple of GB’s worth of space! Now you can last a little bit longer before having to move stuff off. If your computer is still running slow, check out my other articles on how to increase your computer’s performance in the Table of Contents at the top of the post!

Please feel free to comment!

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New ITwin Review

What is ITwin?

This is what I get after some researching about this new device called ITwin. It is a remote file transferring device via two online computer. It is like a flash drive but it is not really, have two ends of USB that acts like a cable. The both end needs to be connected at two online computer to share files remotely.

How it works?

As far as I understand, this thing works as a remote file transferring device. The device itself have both end of USB acts like a cable without the wire!. Both end needs to be connected at two online computer that to be used to transfer files to each other. It is using drag and drop file method.

How can this thing be useful?

It is up to you how you want to use it. For example, you can use it when you are holiday aboard and you carrying a netbook. You need to use a large file while the file itself is in your desktop at home. So this is when ITwin is used. Transfer the file from your desktop at home and access it in your netbook. Quite nice huh?
 

What's More?

Visit their official website http://www.itwin.com to know more about ITwin.

Writer Notes: It is impressive to have one time cost ($99 each) for the simplest remote file transfer system that is secured as it only using simple one-to-one connection. The device itself also can be used as a personal cloud storage without limitations and yearly cost (The only limit is the computer hard drive though). Well thats all for my review. Do you have this device? Share your experience using ITwin here.

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How to extend your Lithium ion battery life?

This is an extended post of "How to take care of your laptop battery".

Today mobile gadget mostly use Lithium ion or Li-ion battery as it power source. Battery is important to mobile gadget. It includes mobile phones, laptop or anything mobile. But do we know how to extend the life of the battery so that we can use it for long term of time.Trust me it is important as you can save money and makes your work more efficiently. So what should you do.?

• Keep the batteries at room temperature 

  You need to store the battery at room temperature that is between 20 and 25 degrees Celcius. You should not charging or leaving your battery at the hot area, this because Li-ion mostt enemy is heat as it can damaging your battery and shorten it life.

• Get a high-capacity lithium-ion battery, rather than a spare battery

  When purchasing battery, make sure you get the high capacity one, as a spare battery cannot last longer than the high capacity one. What's important is whether the battery is used or not, it'll still damaging over time. Also when buying a new battery, make sure to get the one of latest manufactured date, as the the old manufactured will not last longer.

• Allow partial discharges and avoid full ones

  Li-ion batteries do not have a charge memory, unlike NiCad batteries. It means deep-discharge cycles are not required, in fact, it’s better for the battery to use partial-discharge cycles. 

  There is an exception. Battery experts suggest that after 30 charges, you should allow Li-ion batteries to do almost completely discharge. Continuous partial discharges create a condition called digital memory, decreasing the accuracy of the device’s power gauge. So let the battery discharge to the cut-off point and then recharge. The power gauge will then be recalibrated.

• Avoid completely discharging Li-ion batteries

  If a Li-ion battery is discharged below 2.5 volts per cell, a safety circuit built into the battery opens and the battery appears to be dead. The original charger will be of no use. Only battery analyzers with the boost function have a chance of recharging the battery. 

  For safety reasons, do not recharge deeply discharged lithium-ion batteries if they have been stored in that condition for several months.

• Discharge to 40 percent and store in a cool place

  For extended usage of the battery while it is not used, discharge the Li-ion batteries at 40 percent and store it in the refrigerator not a freezer.

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What is hibernate, hibernation and hyberfile.sys?

What is Hibernation?

Hibernation is a process that saves your current work into a non-volatile storage such as hard disk and shut down your computer. When boot up the computer it will resume the last saved work.

It is an advantage when you do a lot of task and you need to shut down the computer while you don't want to lose the work progress. But it takes time to do hibernation depends on how much work running and it takes about amount of storage to save the work in a file named hiberfil.sys .

When you do hibernation, the connection to the internet and running tasks will be stopped.

What is hiberfil.sys? 

Hibernation do save your current work and takes everything in memory and writes it to your hard drive as the hiberfil.sys file. If you have 512MB of memory, then hiberfil.sys will be about 512MB. If you have 2GB, the file will be around 2GB. The important point to remember is that even if you don't use hibernation, hiberfil.sys will still take up this huge amount of disk space. The way to remove the file is to turn off the hibernation feature.

In this post, I will show you how to delete the hiberfil.sys file and how to turn off hibernation. You can free up a few amount of space by doing this.

Delete Hiberfil.sys File

To delete this file, you have to use the command prompt to manually turn off hibernation. 

If you turn off hibernation via Power Options, it will not delete the actual file itself.

Using command prompt

• Type "command" in the search box. Right click Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator.

• To disable hibernation, type the following command >>  powercfg –h off 
• This will disable hibernation and will remove the hiberfil.sys file from your system.

Using Power Options

• Open Control Panel >> System and Security >> Power Options. Or type power options in the search box in control panel windows. Click Change Plan Settings.

• Click on the Change advanced power settings link at the bottom.

• Expand Sleep and then expand Hibernate after. 
• Change the value of On battery and Plugged in to 0 minutes. 
• Note that the option will not even be available if you turned off hibernation using the command line.

• Click Apply and then OK. Then you are done.

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What is VMWare?

What is VMWare?. In this post I will cover a little bit about VMWare. VM is also known as Virtual Machine. So VMWare hold the meaning of Virtual Machine Ware. It is a virtual ware.

What is the use of virtual ware or this VMWare? VMWare function may be vary from the manufacture VM. But what I will cover is using one of the VM called VMWare Player.

It is a software that creates a virtual computer inside your computer. The setting of the virtual computer also is adjustable and you can use any OS of your choice to be run in the VM without make changes to the current OS.

                                    Screenshot of a Windows 7 with Virtual Ubuntu

Installing the VM

• You need to download it at their homepage, www.vmware.com, and install it.
• You need to restart your computer after installing the VMPlayer.
• Now to create the Virtual Computer, open the VMPlayer
• On the welcome windows, click Create New Virtual Machine

 

• Now choose your OS installer disk location. If you have the CD, just insert the CD and select first option, from the Installer Disc. Otherwise if you have the OS CD image file, for example ISO file,  you can use the second option. Browse for the file location. After that click Next. It is not recommended the third option as it just create empty virtual computer.

 

• After that you need to specify which OS you use.

• Choose the location of the VM. You can use the default location or set it to the new location. Its up to you. You can also change the name of the VM.

• Next, specify the volume of the hard disk. When you specify the volume, remember it will use the exact value of the hard disk. It is recommended to store as a single file. Click next.

• Now you can customize your VM before clicking Finish. Here you can choose to add new peripherals.

• After you done setup the peripherals, click Finish and you're done. The VM will be available at the welcome screen.

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Change password in Ubuntu Linux 10.04

Today I feel like to post something about Linux. In this post, I will tell you how to change password in Ubuntu 10.04. It is not as hard as it looks. Well Ubuntu is rather easy open source OS yet. Haha.

In Ubuntu, passwords are very important thing. Unlike Windows, Linux uses password for every and each time we do Administration Tasks. Sometimes also we feel that the password we use is not secure enough and we need to change it. So here it goes in Linux.

• First look for the panel, from the System menu, Administraton then click Users and Groups

 

• Click Change in the dialog box right after Password.

• Enter your current password and enter the new password twice in the change password box.

• There is 3 options while changing password. You can set it by your made password, let the Ubuntu generate random 8 alphanumeric character passsword or either you chose not to fill password at the login.

• If you chose to Ubuntu generated password, you can just click the Generate button and chose which of your favour. But, if you chose this option, make sure you try to remember the generated password. Or else...
• And click OK and you're Done!.

Sometimes Ubuntu will display error message when it think the password you set too simple or similar with the first one. If it think the password you entered is acceptable, the change takes effects immediately.

 

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USB 3.0 Review : Advantages and Disadvantages

In this post I will review about USB 3.0. We are hearing about it anywhere now. But what is USB 3.0 and what is good and the bad part about it.


USB 3.0 first introduced in the end of 2008. It is obviously the fastest Universal Serial Bus (USB) by now as it speed can allow data transfer speed up to 5 Gbits/s or 625 MBytes per second. It is said to be 10x faster from the USB 2.0. As for the connector seems nothing differ from the USB 2.0 connector but the USB 3.0 connector has 5 more connecting pins placed deep inside the connector cover.

So lets see some of the advantages and disadvantages of USB 3.0.

The advantages of USB 3.0

• 10x faster than USB 2.0 and a max data transfer speed of upto 5Gbits/sec or about 640MB/sec. 
• USB 3.0 is fully compatible with USB 2.0 .
• Higher Power Supplied to the USB Devices, especially useful for Portable HDD’s. The USB 3.0 can provide a maximum power of 900mA, compared to USB 2.0 that can only provide 500mA power.
• Lower Power Consumption by the USB Devices. USB 3.0 also comes with better power saving features so your USB powered devices will consume less power when it is in idle mode.

The disadvantages of USB 3.0

• The motherboard’s included with USB 3.0 will be costly but the older technology price will go down.
• USB 3.0 is incompatible with USB 1.1
• USB 3.0 only supports a maximum cable length of 3 meters compared to 5 meters of USB 2.0
• Mobile phones and other gadgets which will use the Micro-B USB 3.0 connector will have a width of 12.25mm while the Micro-B USB 2.0 Connector is only 6.86mm wide
• Currently there are no OS available in the market which supports USB 3.0. Maybe there will an update when the technology began to spread.

Check out 3.0 also at: PCMag, Techie-Buzz

Writers note: Eventhough there seems a lot disadvantages than advantages, I am pretty sure they will fix it and make it is affordable to everyone and better than it is reviewed. I am going to get my desktop compatible with 3.0 later. 


So have you already use or have any comments about 3.0? Say it here. I want to hear it.

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Hard disk not detected (SOLVED)

Recently, I have some problems on my laptop. that is the external hard disk is not detected.

I have 1 TB external hard disk portable USB 2.0 powered. The hard disk works well before until I don't know when, but I just realize that the external is not detected anymore.

There is some confusing when the external is detected but not displayed in the Explorer or My Computer. So I decided to troubleshoot this problem because it is just annoying and make my work become hard.

After doing some research and experiment finally this issue is solved. The cause is it is not assign by the path or drive letter. So what do I do?

• Firstly I connect my external and see it is detected by the system but not displayed in the Explorer.
• After that, I run the command prompt as Administrator (although I am already Admin) and type this command, compmgmt.msc . This command also can be typed through Run.

• I look for the Disk Management in the Storage section.
• After that I look for my hard disk and right click on the hard disk. 
• Then I select for Change Drive Letter and Path, and then I click Add.

• The path of my external before is not set, so I set it as new path. For example H:

• After that my hard disk is detected and found in Explorer.

Writers Note: This step is completely working for me. This solution for the problem is only for when the hard disk is detected by the system by not displayed in the explorer. I am using Windows 7 while experimenting this and I think the same step can also be used by other Windows. 

If you have the same problem like this, try the above steps. Find this information useful? Share this and don't forget to backlinks to this website.

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How to take care of laptop battery?

In this post, I like to tell you guys several things you need to do if you are to take care of your laptop battery and wanted to use it for a long time.

Many of laptop user usually asks " Do we need to take out the battery if it is fully charged?"

The answer to above question is depend on the situation. Leaving the battery fully charged and the laptop plugged in usually is not harmful. There is another facts that if leaving the battery fully charged and still charging the battery will damage the battery. This facts is not fully true.

Why? Heat is the battery enemy. The battery will damage if it is leaving fully charged and plugged in and the laptop is having high temperature. When the HDD and the CPU temperature is over 50ºC, the laptop is facing high temperature and in this time you should remove the battery from laptop.

Else if your HDD and CPU temperature is lower than 40ºC, it is up to you if you want the battery to stay in the laptop or remove it. Either is okay.

The other method of keeping the battery for a long useable time, is never ever let your battery empty and then after that you charge it again. This is because the battery will degrade its power little by little each time you let the battery empty. The battery should be charged at the best when it reached 30% of capacity left. After that make sure it is fully charged and checked whether you need to remove it from the laptop or not by checking the CPU and HDD temperature.

Nowadays there are many software that can monitor your computer temperature and battery performance.

The best software I test and I recommend a lot to care the battery from damaging and facing degradation is BatteryCare. You can read more about care the battery here and go to the BatteryCare web page.

Writers note: This is some the method that I know how to care the battery. If you have any other useful links to other best method, please mind to share. And I am not promoting for the software. I am recommend it. If you found any other useful software too, please mind to share. Good day.

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How To Remove Ubuntu

In this post, I will tell you how to remove Ubuntu Linux from your system. This tutorial is only when you have Ubuntu Linux Dual Boot with Windows with GRUB loader installed and you want to remove Ubuntu partition only without corrupting Windows partition.

We cannot delete Ubuntu partition directly because Ubuntu installs a GRUB boot loader into the Master Boot Record (MBR), if you delete Ubuntu partitions all the data will be deleted but not GRUB! So when your restart your PC, GRUB will look for Ubuntu , when it does not find Ubuntu it show some error and you cannot even boot into windows. So here I'm going to show you how to safely remove Linux. 

Boot to Windows:

• Download EASUS Partition Master HERE.
• Then download mbfix from HERE.
  
• Extract all files in mbrfix.zip to C:\.
• Open Command Prompt [start >> run >> type cmd >> OK]
• In the Command Prompt, type cd\ and press enter.
• Then type mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes and press enter.
• By using EASUS Partition Master look for the Linux partition. (If you don't know which, it is usually identify as * besides of using letters to identify the partition). Now you can delete Ubuntu partitions (/, swap etc) using the software.
• Restart your PC.

This will overwrite GRUB with Windows boot loader . So you will see Windows boot loader instead of GRUB.
 
Note : If you are using Windows 7 or Vista make sure you run the Command Prompt as an administrator.

Note: Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

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Trillian : Connects to everything

Well in today post, I like to share with you all the ultimate best multi protocol IM ever, Trillian by Cerulian Studios.

Trillian provides all in one multi protocol chat IM to most chat protocols, like Yahoo Messenger, MSN, Astra, AIM, ICQ, Facebook Chat, MySpace IM, GoogleTalk, and Jabber. It provides all in one chat in one software. Cool huh? Well then that just the only chat servers, Trillian also offers Mail supports too like POP3 and such. well I gave 4/5 for this Cool apps.

If you like to access chat from different protocols in one simple yet powerful software, I fully recommend you Trillian.

Trillian Astra is FREE and  if you only want more you can get it in PRO/ FULL version.

Click Here to get more information about Trillian and Download Free Trillian.

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Re-Enable disabled CMD, Task Manager, Run and Regedit

Re-Enable help us re-enable disabled Task Manager, Registry Editor, Command Prompt, Folder Options and even System Restore configuration that is normally caused by virus.

All you need to do is put a check on the checkbox that you want to enable and click the Enable button. The disable feature will be instantly enabled or if not, a reboot would do the trick. Please make sure that the computer is free from virus or else the changes made by this tool will not be effective and there is no end to enabling/disabling competition between you and the virus.

Click to download Re-enable V2 or Re-enable Portable
If you choose to download Re-enable V2, please make sure you have .Net Framework installed.

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10 things you can do when the drive on your Linux box is full

Larger hard drives should mean the end of disk space worries, but our appetite for bigger files has kept pace with all that increased capacity. Here are some effective ways to keep your Linux box from busting at the seams. 

1: Use Computer Janitor (or its equivalent)

Ubuntu Linux has a handy tool called Computer Janitor. If you don't have it, find it in the Ubuntu Software Center. It will analyze your system and report which applications are no longer supported or no longer required. The tool is incredibly simple to use and will gain you some space, depending upon how many unsupported applications you have on your machine. This tool probably won’t recover gigabytes of space, but you may recover a few hundred megabytes. And in the quest to gain as much space as you can find, every little bit helps.

2: Add an external drive

Linux really loves external drives. In modern incarnations, it doesn’t matter if that drive is ext2/3/4, reiserfs, fat, vfat, NTFS, hfs… Linux can read it. Naturally, you’re not going to move your applications to the external drive (although you could). But you can certainly use it as a data drive and move all of those precious family pictures, home movies, and MP3 collections to it.

3: Install the OS with /home on a separate drive

This makes sense on a number of levels. First, it moves all user data off the drive housing the OS. This also means when you reinstall the OS you don’t have to worry about overwriting your user data. Of course, that’s assuming you remember NOT to install the OS on the drive that contains all the data on your /home drive. (But if you forget and do that, this article won’t help you anyway.)

4: Check your log files

Although this isn’t nearly as common as an Exchange log getting out of hand, I have seen instances where a log file did not rotate and exceeded the normal size. The Linux operating system has a good log rotational tool, and usual logs shouldn’t get the chance to grow overly large. But if that should happen, you can take advantage of the built-in logrotate tool to solve that issue. As a general rule, I have found this to be an issue only with non-system (or non-default system) software. Remember, all log files are usually housed in /var/log.

5: Clear your package manager cache

If you use a distribution that employs a package manager like apt, you can free up a good amount of space by clearing the cache. Apt retains the .deb packages it uses in /var/cache/apt/archives. You don’t want to just delete those file, as that could have negative repercussions on the apt tool. Instead, use the built-in apt-cache tool to purge the cache and free up a good amount of space.

6: Clear application caches with Bleachbit

Another outstanding tool (also found in Synaptic) is Bleachbit. This tool clears only the various caches that applications use, but you will be surprised at how much space you can free up from clearing the cache of Adobe Reader, APT, Bash, Browsers, Evolution, Flash, GNOME, KDE, and many more applications. On a single run, without clearing the cache of all available applications, I was able to free up 485.9 MB. Not only will this give you more space, but some of those applications (the ones that tend to hold onto more cache than others) will begin running with more snap.

7: Write your own script

This is the approach that most hard-core Linux users prefer. Why bother with a fancy GUI when bash is all you really need? You can create a simple bash script to traverse the directory hierarchy and report which files are taking up the most space and delete them, if applicable. For example, this simple one line script:

find /home/jlwallen -size +1000000k

will print out the results of a find command, but only those files found that are larger than .95 Gb. Or you can find and delete duplicate files with a script like this:

#!/bin/sh

find -type f | while IFS= read vo

do

echo `basename “$vo”`

done

Call that script duplicate.sh and then pipe its results through uniq, like so:

./duplicate.sh | uniq -d

This will print out all duplicate files you have on your drive, and you can then decide whether you want to delete them.

8: Remove applications

I know this sounds silly, but I bet if you went through the hierarchy of your menu you would find a good number of applications you simply do not use. Why keep them on there if you’re not going to use them? Delete those bad boys and recover some space. This especially holds true if you like to install numerous applications just to test the waters. The best approach is to use your GUI package manager so you can simply scroll through what is installed and remove away.

9: Empty your Trash

In some instances (and distributions), Delete works similarly to how it works in Windows — instead of actually deleting the file, the file goes to the Trash. I have seen cases where the Trash was very full, and the act of emptying that directory freed up quite a bit of space. To clear it, simply right-click on the Trash icon and select Empty Trash.

10: Reinstall

Although this should be used only as a last-ditch effort, a clean installation certainly does restore that factory fresh smell, as well as giving you the chance to migrate to the latest, greatest version without the bad taste of doing an upgrade installation. Here’s the kicker: If you have a TON of files in your ~/ directory, when you copy those back, you will wind up with the same tonnage on your newly installed system. Take this opportunity to either move those files to a new location or just weed out that huge collection of wallpapers you have from the ’90s and the redundant backups of all your movies and MP3s.

Portion control

You would be surprised how quickly even a terabyte drive can fill up. With more and more people downloading video and audio onto their machines (and that process growing ever more user friendly), it’s no wonder the size of hard drives continues to grow increasingly EPIC! But with the help of the above tips, you should be able to prevent your Linux system from getting overstuffed and slowing down.

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10 Things can go wrong when ur upgrading ur system!

Upgrading to a new operating system can be a stressful experience. You try to make thing better when sometimes it just be a problem. In this article, we’ll look at some of those potential problems and explain how you can prevent them or work around them if they do occur.

#1: Insufficient hardware

Usually new OS use better hardware than the old one. For example XP may just use of a little memory and processor but not with Vista or & that may be use a lot.
HArdware that usually may be upgraded:

• Display (known as 3D card usually)
• Processor(may be intel or AMD)
• primary memory(ram) and secondary memory(hdd)

Suggestion: If u have to upgrade and costly more than buy a new computer, better u buy a new computer.

#2: Setup errors and freezes

Setup error happen when installation stop at the middle or corrupt. Usually happens when not enough HDD size, or slow processing memory (not enough RAM) or corrupted HDD. 

If u have a bad HDD or RAM, better replace with a good one. Sometimes problem occur because of the HDD driver missing. In some cases installing the driver for hardware before installing the OS may fix the problem.

#3: Driver problems

Driver problems are one of the most common problem after ur upgrading ur system.

Usually when ur realize that after u install new OS, the sound not functioning, or maybe u cannot connect to the internet(very suck).

The solution is simple: Just get the driver from the internet, or usually when u buy new computer u will get driver disk. Just install it. After u install all the driver, u just can fell nice.

#4: Activation error

This usually occurs when ur windows not genuine (whatever WGA or WAT). Simple solutions ever, got urself an original, IF the problem persist, just contact Microsoft.

You may be not want to be the one of piracy victim, huh?

#5: Application incompatibilities

Very common problem. Not all application that can be used in older OS can be use in the later one. For example, you may can play a game in XP but not in VIsta or 7. This is incompatibility occurence.

Solution: USE compatibilty mode for this application.(Dont worry this mode is available for newer OS).

HOW?: Just right click on the application that cannot works, select -Properties-, on the -Compatibility- tab, tick -Compatibility MOde- and select which of old OS that support the application.

#6: Wrong OS edition

This problem usually happen when u just buy a Windows but did not realize that they have many edition and version. Edition for windows usually have: Starter, Home, Home Premium and Ultimate. Each edition provide different content. You may check this out at Microsoft page.Version only consist of 32bit (or known as x86) or 64bit.
Solution: Check out first version and edition that covers ur needs

#7: Data loss

Data loss happens usually when u do clean installation for upgrading.
Solution: Backup ur important files regularly,and u can use certain software to find lost data or files.

#8: Performance problems

Usually the problem comes down to one of the items discussed above: insufficient hardware, the wrong drivers, application incompatibility, etc.

Solution: latest OS need appropriate hardware spec to run normally. Be sure to check requirement before upgrading.

#9: Permissions/access problems

You try to open a folder called Documents, but you get an “access denied” message. It may be that what you’re clicking on isn’t the Documents folder at all, but a “junction” or type of shortcut. Read more about that here.

You may be able to fix the problem by taking ownership of the object. You’ll need to be logged on as an administrator to do that. For more on how this works, see “Easier Way to Take Ownership and Grant Access Files or Directories in Vista.”

Another possibility is that the file or folder was encrypted with EFS in Windows XP. If you’ve now installed Windows Vista Home Basic or Home Premium edition, EFS isn’t fully supported. However, if you have the EFS certificate that was used to encrypt the file, you can decrypt it at the command prompt. For more information on how to do that, see “Troubleshoot “access denied” when opening files or folders.”

#10: Interface problems/learning curve

Later OS provide beautiful, complex interface but actually it is simple. Some person not used to new environment. How to overcome it? 2 ways. Explore all the new way of new OS OR customize interface to what are u comfortable.

Got questions? ASk. Got a better answer? Share.

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Zimbra Desktop

Like to send or recieve email? Well for me contacting via email is important. I usually open browser to read or send email, until I found this very useful opensource email reader, Zimbra Desktop. 

Well what makes Zimbra okay for me?. Its the same as Silverlight, Outlook or Thunderbird. But as I used free Yahoo Mail, it is hard for me to access my email via third party software. I need to upgrade my free mail to Y Mail Plus for $29.99/ year which is nonsense. I just regular email user who wants to use third party software to easily access my mail.


So, if u the same user as I and want to access ur email easily, I recommended a lot to you Zimbra Desktop. Download it for free and you can access your free mail easily.

You know what? You can add multiple email accounts to view for. Impressive.!

How to use Zimbra Desktop:

• Download and install Zimbra
• Launch Zimbra Desktop
• Click Add New Account
• Choose your Account (eg:Yahoo Mail, GMail)
• Fill in your account name, email address, email password
• Click Validate and Save
• You are done.

                                Preview of the Zimbra Desktop from Email Service Guide

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Custom your XP or Vista to 7!

SPECIAL IN THIS POST...

Now you can custom your Windows Vista and Windows XP appearance look like much Windows 7.
I found out this thing and already try it on my Vista. Well, it look like much to Win 7 but it not Win 7.
I like to share this thing to you all.

1. Change full appearance by using Seven Remix Reloaded for Windows Vista and Seven Remix XP for Windows XP. Thanks to NiwradSoft.

2. Install as usual and restart windows. Now your Windows appearance has change.

3. To change the Taskbar, you need to use Windows 7 Style (ONLY for Vista) and change something in regedit.

4. I am not sure if it works in XP, but you can try to change it by using regedit.

5.To make the taskbar buttons showing only the icons you must do this:

Start > Run > regedit > HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

In there you must find the a "REG_SZ" with the name "MinWidth"
(write it without the quotes)
If you cant find it create one on your won with the name "MinWidth"
(write it without the quotes)

Once you find it double click on it and set the number 40 then click ok and close.
registry and restart your computer.

(Note REG_SZ is a Registry String Value)

6. There you go! New appearance for your XP and Vista.

credits to NiwradSoft, giannisgx89, TechRepublic, rahmanprojectd

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