CompuClever Blog

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!

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.

How to fix Java errors

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java runtime environment errorsYou’ll sometimes see things like “java error” when you try to run these applications. What causes Java errors?

Java is a programming language used by websites to help deliver online games, facilitate online chat and offer streaming audio and video. The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) makes this all happen, and has to be downloaded on your PC to run stand-alone Java applications or Java Plug-in software that runs inside your internet browsers.

Common causes of Java errors are usually related to certain aspects of the Java Runtime Environment, ranging from messed up or old Java installations to even Java being disabled. Let’s tale a look at the top 3 causes of Java errors and how to fix them.

Cause 1: Outdated or corrupt Java Runtime Environment.
You receive errors saying Java not found or not working. This indicates that your PC doesn’t have Java installed or the current installation is corrupt or outdated.

How to fix it:
Install or re-install Java Runtime Environment. Most Java applications require your PC have the latest Java version to function properly. More here
Cause 2: Older Java Versions were cached or not properly removed.
Even after you install the latest Java version, you can still encounter Java errors or requests for updating Java. This is because your PC and web browser are still using a previous version of Java instances. According to ORACLE – the company that develops the Java technology – keeping older versions of Java imposes serious security risks to your PC.

How to fix it:
Uninstall older Java versions and clear Java cache. All previous versions of Java installed on your PC need to be removed. To ensure a clean start, you should also clear the Java cache. More here

Cause 3: Java is not properly enabled.
Installing the latest Java doesn’t always guarantee that your Java environment is properly configured and thus enabled.

How to fix it:
Configure the Java and browser settings to ensure that Java is properly enabled. This includes two parts, involving both the browser and the Java Control Panel. How to fix it

In summary: Like Java errors, your PC may have other performance or stability issues that need to be identified and addressed. We recommend you download PC TuneUp Maestro and conduct a free PC scan to discover PC optimization opportunities. Registered users of PC TuneUp Maestro also receive Professional PC Support Service, through which our Technical Support Specialists will provide you direct help with fixing Java errors.

 

Improve computer performance by tweaking printer settings

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Sometimes it’s the little things that optimize your PC and improve Windows performance. Ideally, using the computer should be a painless, fluid experience, but even with all of the advances of Windows 7, it can still take time to get things just right.

Take printing, for example. Often the printer default is set to “color”. This can be kind of expensive (and ultimately annoying), especially if you’re printing out something for your records, or as a first draft that you intend to correct and then revise once again on the computer. When the default printer setting is color, every time you print a document from Windows, you need to manually set the printing preferences to black and white, to avoid wasting expensive color ink. Before you know it, your color ink cartridge is empty, which often means you won’t even be able to use your printer at all!

improve computer performance

A good way to solve this problem is to have your printer default to black-and-white. That way, everything will print black and white unless you manually set it to color, which is much more convenient than the other way around.

How to set the printer default to black-and-white on Windows 7:

1. Click the “Start” menu button and double-click Control Panel.
2. Look for the icon that says Devices and Printers and double-click it.
3. You should now see a list of printers. Find your default printer (the one your computer uses when printing), right-click it, and select on Printer Properties.
4. When the multi-tabbed properties dialog box appears, click the “General” tab, then click the “Preferences” button. Look for a color setting and set your printer to default to Greyscale (or black-and-white) printing. When you are done press “OK”.

Now your printer will default to black and white instead of color, and that should save you time, ink and money!

– Nevin Thompson frequently blogs about how to improve computer performance

Improve PC Performance and Windows Explorer Speeds

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Windows Explorer is a file manager that has been  included with every release of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95. It provides an easy and relatively intuitive way for us regular humans to view the computer’s file systems.

However, over the years Windows Explorer has become supercharged, and has received so many upgrades and extra added features that it’s hard to keep track of them

Windows Explorer in Windows 7 and now features something called “Libraries”, folders that collect content from various locations, including shared folders on computers on the same network. Libraries are generally stored in the Libraries special folder, which allows them to be displayed on the navigation pane.

By default, a new user account in Windows 7 contains four libraries, for different file types: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. They are configured to include your user profile folders for these file types, as well as the computer’s corresponding Public folders.

In addition to collecting and presenting information about multiple storage locations, Libraries allows you to arrange and filter results (kind of like using Google or Bing search in a web browser) For example, selecting the “By Month” view in the Pictures library will display photos in stacks, where each stack represents a month of photos based on the date they were taken. In the Music library, the “By Artist” view will display stacks of albums from the artists in your collection, and browsing into an artist stack will then display the relevant albums.

Search Filter Suggestions are a new feature of the Windows 7. When the user clicks in the search box, a menu shows up below it showing recent searches as well as suggested filters that the user can type. When one is selected (or typed in manually), the menu will update to show the possible values to filter by for that property, and this list is based on the current location and other parts of the query already typed. For example, selecting the “tags” filter or typing “tags:” into the search box will display the list of possible tag values which will return search results.

You can speed up the display load time of Windows Explorer by disabling the option to search for network printers and folders.

By default, each time Windows Explorer is opened it will try to locate any printer or folder on your computer network. If your computer is not on a network and/or you have no network printers, folders being shared, disable this option by following these steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click the Tools drop down menu and then Folder Options.
3. Within the Folder Options tab click the View tab.
4. Uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers.

– For more on how to improve PC performance, please give PC TuneUp Maestro a try.