CompuClever Blog

How to free up memory on your PC

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Thanks to the incredible growth in online services in recent years, paired with the ability to quickly an easily connect your home computer to your entertainment system, it’s really easy to start downloading movies from Amazon or other providers and never stop! Combine that with our tendency to take HD videos of our kids, and it all adds up to hard drives that fill up quite quickly.

So what do you do if you run out of memory on your computer?

If your hard disk is filling up, you can free up a considerable amount of memory by reducing the size of your Recycle Bin. Your Recycle Bin is where all of your “deleted” files end up, but they’re not really deleted until you, the user select “empty Recycle Bin”.

Until they, all of these old files, everything from old Word docs to very large media files stay where they are, taking up space on your hard drive.

So, to empty your Recycle Bin and free up some space:

  1. Right click on the Recycle Bin icon with your mouse, choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
  2. In Vista and Windows 7, you can enter in a maximum MB that the recycle bin can hold. Whatever the number is currently there, start off by dividing it by 2 and using that value.
  3. For other Windows versions, you can drag the slider to a lower value. 2% of the drive should be enough if you’re really stuck.

Of course, this is really a last-ditch effort, and sooner rather than later you’re going to need buy a hard drive.

One other trick to freeing up memory is by defragmenting your computer’s registry

Your PC’s hard drives and system registry can become fragmented if not regularly inspected, and this fragmentation registry causes slowdown while your computer attempts to perform seek and write commands. This, in turn, slows down the performance of your entire system.

Defragmentation reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems (in other words, your registry) by reorganizing the contents of the hard drive in order to make sure pieces of each file are stored as close together as possible; this reduces the amount of time it takes for the system to access the whole file.

Defragmentation also creates larger regions of free space by compacting the files in the registry – this actually can prevent the return of fragmentation. Defragmenters also keep smaller files within a single directory together, as they are often accessed in sequence.

PC TuneUp Maestro’s Registry Defragmentation tool completely removes fragmentation gaps and produces a cleaner, more compact registry that takes up less disk space and consumes fewer memory resources. The result is that your computer has optimal access to its registry, so your system and application response times are improved.

 

How to speed up Internet Explorer for free

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How to speed up Internet Explorer

It’s a fact: Internet Explorer slows down over time. Pages take longer to load, and sometimes even crash.

Why is this?

Often when you purchase a new computer, Internet Explorer comes pre-installed with “tool bars”. These may look useful, but they can slow down your computer.

Other things like “cookies” and other Internet Explorer “plugins” can also slow down your internet browsing.

Our cool trick

Luckily, we have developed a cool trick that’s easy to do, that speeds up Internet Explorer on your computer.

If you’ve downloaded the newest version of PC TuneUp Maestro:

1) Click on the “Fix & Clean”.

2) Click on “Internet Explorer Repair”, and you’ll be presented with some choices.

Reset Internet Explorer

If you click on “Reset Internet Explorer”, you’ll be able to remove all the toolbars and plugins that may be slowing down your computer.

Don’t worry, PC TuneUp Maestro will ask you every step of the way about what to remove – you get the final say on what toolbars and plugins stay, and which ones get removed.

Launch Internet Explorer Without Add-Ons

Launch this tool, and a new Internet Explorer window will open and you can start enjoying a faster web browser immediately.

So there you have it – two ways to help speed up Internet Explorer. Let us know how it works!

Want to speed up Internet Explorer? Try downloading PC TuneUp Maestro for free!

Speed up your computer in 5 days

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speed up my computerUse PC TuneUp Maestro to speed up your computer over 5 days by completing 5 taks. Some of these can be used without even purchasing PC TuneUp Maestro!

Here’s the boot camp line up:

Day 1: Remove clutter

Over time, your applications run more slowly and your computer is not performing as fast as it used to. You may be experiencing the effects of clutter: excess files on the computer.

The solution is to delete these files to prevent delay time and make your computer more responsive.

Day 2: Re-organize your files

Over time, as your computer saves and stores files, the files can become fragmented. This fragmentation can result in poor hard drive performance, which means it takes longer for your computer to open programs and files.

Use PC TuneUp Maestro to quickly access the Disk Defragmenter, a tool that will speed up the access to files on your hard drive by re-arranging them.

Day 3: Speed up the startup time

It is common for applications to add functions to your computer that run when you start the computer and possible stay active (but out of view), while you use the computer.  Each of these programs takes time to load up and run when you start the computer, making the wait longer.

Review startup plans and decide whether to enable or disable an item from opening when you start your computer

Day 4: Clean up the registry

The Windows registry stores information about applications, file locations, application settings, and entries from program installations, and can sometimes store out-dated and empty entries that will slow down your computer.

Use Registry Repair to detect and errors in the registry that have an impact on stability and performance.

Day 5: Tune up the performance

Adjust the Windows settings to improve PC performance – settings in Windows that can affect how much memory and CPU time it needs to perform tasks and these settings may not be configured at optimal levels.

Use PC TuneUp Maestro to quickly analyze your computer and provide a recommended list of items that will bring about performance improvements specific to your computer system.

Download PC TuneUp Maestro here.

 

How to recover a lost password on a Windows PC

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recover windows passwordIf you have a Windows computer and have ever lost your password, often the only thing you can do is reinstall Windows. There’s nothing else you can do. And if you have lost or misplaced your original install disks, it’s also going to be even more difficult to recover that lost password. 

Awesome website How-To Geek has one solution for recovering a lost password: change or reset your Windows password from a Ubuntu live CD. 

It won’t be the easiest solution to your problem, but How-To Geek at least provides a step-by-step walkthrough, complete with screenshots. An additional option is to reset your Windows password with SystemRescueCD, and this solution can be booted from USB disk or CD. 

Finally, the easiest, step-by-step process may be: 

  1. Download the pendrivelinux auto-drive maker.
  2. Download Kon-boot. This is hosted out of my dropbox b/c the zip you d/l from the site is a challenge for noobs…it’s passworded and a couple folders deep. You can download it directly if you feel more secure. This is a direct link to the ISO, it’s TINY.
  3. Stick your flash drive into a usb slot—you’re going to lose all data. Select “Kon-Boot” from the drop down menu on the pendrivelinux app.
  4. Choose your flash drive in the “drive select” box.
  5. Say OK to all the warnings.
  6. Eject disk.
  7. With netbook powered off, insert USB stick. Hammer f12 when you boot up the netbook, this should take you into the boot-select option.
  8. Choose either USB Storage or the drive, depending on the computer it may see the flash drive on the first screen. USB Storage should find it regardless.
  9. When the screen comes up that looks all weird, just press enter. If it pauses, just press enter.
  10. It will take you to the normal windows login screen.
  11. You can just click your account and it will log you in.
  12. Change password.

And that’s it.

Well, it’s a pretty complicated process, and installing different of varieties of Linux on a Windows machine is never easy. However, at least it’s a way to help regain control of your computer.

As always, be very careful when attempting more advanced PC techniques – you can damage your computer. When in doubt, seek the help of a qualified PC repair technician. For other tips and tricks to help speed up your  PC, why not try out PC TuneUp Maestro.

3 ways to speed up your PC

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speed up pc`There are always little things you can do to speed up your PC, and help keep it running smoothly. We’re going to assume that you’re running a version of Windows 7.

Note: Some of the tools mentioned in this article require you to be logged on as an administrator. If you aren’t logged on as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user account.

1. Remove spyware, protect against viruses

You’ve probably heard of the terms “spyware” and “virus”, but what are they, really? Both are malicious software programs inadvertently downloaded onto your computer from the internet. Sometimes your computer can be infected by spyware and viruses by visiting a website, and sometimes these programs can be downloaded as files. Both affect the speed of your computer. Spyware, as its name suggests, spys on your activities and personal information, such as passwords and even credit card information. Viruses are even more insidious – some wreak havoc for the sake of wreaking havoc, while other viruses may launch programs. Either way, both spyware and viruses will slow down your computer. Microsoft Security Essentials is a great tool for helping get rid of spyware and viruses.

2. Free up disk space

Free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. Choose a tool identifies files that you can safely delete and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Speed up your computer by:

  • Removing temporary Internet files.
  • Deleting downloaded program files, such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets.
  • Emptying the Recycle Bin.
  • Removing Windows temporary files, such as error reports.
  • Deleting optional Windows plugins you don’t use.
  • Deleting installed programs that you no longer use.
  • Removing older restore points.

Note: The quickest way to free up disk space and improve PC performance is to get rid of temporary Internet files, which take the most amount of space.

3. Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk as a file is opened (to piece it back together). The response time can be significantly longer.

PC TuneUp Maestro’s Registry Defragmentation tool completely removes fragmentation gaps and produces a cleaner, more compact registry that takes up less disk space and consumes fewer memory resources. The result is that your computer has optimal access to its registry, so your system and application response times are improved.

When to defrag your disk:
It’s always a good idea to defrag your disk when:

  • You add a large number of files.
  • Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
  • You install new programs or a new version of the Windows operating system.

We recommend you download PC TuneUp Maestro and conduct a free PC scan to discover PC optimization opportunities.