A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
This month I’d like to share a few tips that I’ve learned over the years. They’re mostly little items that I’ve found helped make my computing faster and easier. These tips are on random subjects, but I’ve found that all of them make my computing experience just a little easier than before. Most tips work with all Windows versions, but I don’t guarantee it. I do know you can try them all for free. You’ve probably heard of some of these tips and already use them all the time, but I’m willing to bet you’ll find one or two things you can use to make your computing experience easier or faster.
If your computer has more than one processor, you can easily make it boot a little faster by running msconfig. Click the boot section and then click advanced options. Then check the number of processors block and click OK. Now when your computer will boot a little faster because it uses more processing power.
While msconfig is open you can also easily stop the windows boot logo from slowing your startup time. Click the BOOT tab and check the No GUI Boot.
Do you sometimes lose sight of your mouse arrow? Some web pages snap it to somewhere else on the screen and sometimes it just gets lost in the background. My clumsy finger often causes my cursor to relocate when I’m using my laptop touchpad. Just open mouse properties in your control panel. Under pointer options, check “show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key”. Apply the settings and you will always easily find you cursor with a simple press of the CTRL key.
Speaking of the CTRL key, there is another key that is usually near it on most computer keyboards. You can save a lot of time by using the window key in combination with other keys. One of my favorite personal favorites is using Window Key-E to quickly open Windows Explorer. If you’ve upgraded to Windows 7, the Window Key has more useful user-friendly functions than ever before. To speed up your computing, I recommend doing a web search for your operating system and windows key (or keyboard shortcuts). You will find several web sites with lists of all the key functions you can use. After awhile, you will find that the windows key will be a force of habit that makes it easier for you to use your computer.
Why not take a minute, run services.msc and make your computer run just a little faster. This will open a window with detailed information about all of the services (with detailed descriptions) that are running on your computer. You will probably find many that you do not need. To disable a service, just double click on it and change the startup type. Remember that you can always change it back later if you find you need the service after all. If you need more information on a particular service, just type the name into your favorite internet search engine and you’ll find out all that you need to know. Services are important, but every one that your computer doesn’t have to check up on will help it to run a little faster.
Why not print a little bit faster and save some money at the same time? Detailed prints take longer to produce. If you reduce the quality a little, you can print faster and save some ink. Open print properties in any program to change the settings. Look for draft mode or something similar.
If you use Vista or Windows 7, you should be using ReadyBoost. Just install any high performance SD card or flash drive and you’ll have a memory cache. Just open my computer, right click on the icon and select properties. Then you can enable ready boost. If you really want a much faster computer, buy or build a new one with all of the latest components.
Happy Computing!