A friend of mine has recently been the recipient of a Celeron-powered laptop from his employer. The specs are not that impressive, but it’s decent enough to allow him to process documents and spreadsheets seamlessly.

Many companies are reluctant to give out core duo laptops to their employees for the reason that the latter might be tempted to test the processing powers of their unit in games and videos. Instead, what they distribute to their workers are basic notebooks that are weak to be able to run games, but still fast enough to save those MS Word and Excel files.

There are ways though, by which your Celeron could run as fast as a Pentium.

First, make sure that it’s free from any malware. Second, conduct regular virus checks. Lastly, optimize your PC and discard needless files or transactions.

Re-Tweet This Post

Too much data? Overused? Virtual memory too large?

I’m sure you already know what I’m talking about. My hard drive has been making weird noises lately. A friend of mine told me that my disk is telling me something. I wonder what it is.

Well, I’m not entirely clueless as to what it is. When your hard disk starts clicking or grinding, it’s definitely telling you that something’s not right. But the thing is, my PC not even that old. It’s practically new, so how could its components turn cuckoo coo this early?!?

I tried to check several Web sites over the Internet to seek clarification on my problem and suspicion. True enough, many of them confirmed my fears. The noises that my hard disk is emitting are symptoms of an impending crash.

I guess it’s not enough that I keep the files in it defragmented. Optimization alone won’t keep one’s PC in tip top shape. You have to take care of it physically. Don’t subject it to unnecessary abuse. Yes, even when you are really having a bad day…

Re-Tweet This Post

Contrary to what some believe, optimizing your PC is just as easy as playing Solitaire or Minesweeper on Windows. Many users are sometimes intimidated by the gamut of details that come out of their screen after a disk or system scan.

There are several tools by which you can improve the performance of your PC. One of my favorites is the disk defragmenter. This optimization option can be very helpful, if not a must, for users like me who always install and uninstall applications in their computer.

The ideal arrangement of files or applications in a hard drive is that they should occupy a single, contiguous space so that it could easily be accessed. However, this is not always the case. The hard drive writes files on the first vacant space that it finds. However, that free disk estate cannot usually accommodate the whole file. Hence, half of the file or application is placed elsewhere in the disk.

A disk defragmenter solves this dilemma by rearranging the files in the disk in such a way that each file or a group of related files are placed on a specific and contiguous portion of the disk. This would make it easier for the computer to access them since it won’t have to sort out its entire hard disk to open the file or application.This is just one of the ways by which you could harness the full potential of your PC. Don’t limit yourself to this option alone though. Clean your registries and make sure that your disk is in top shape, too.

Re-Tweet This Post

I know this prediction is quite bold, but I think the continuous development of the laptop will eventually cause the demise of the desktop.

Many are already contemplating on shelving their old desktop PC for a brand new notebook. This was quite unthinkable a few years ago. The resolution of many laptop LCDs back then was mediocre compared to their larger cousins. The portable PC also opens up and runs applications at a laggard pace.

Things have greatly changed since then. Current notebook LCDs can already put to shame some desktop monitors. Core Duo processors have also found their way in almost all notebook brands.

The only thing that’s keeping some people from retiring their desktops for a new laptop is the latter’s inflexibility when it comes to upgrading components. It’s undeniable that upgrading or changing desktop peripherals is much easier compared to doing the same on laptops. It is also more expensive.

I’m still keeping my old Pentium 4 laptop precisely due to that reason. I’m happy with the performance of my Acer notebook, but I know there will come a time when I’ll have to change some of its components to keep up with the growing number of applications that demand much from the processors.

I don’t have the money yet to buy additional or more powerful components, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be able to improve my notebooks performance until then. Most of the time, one can give his PC’s stamina and capacity a boost by simply cleaning up its registry and other system files. It’s cheaper and definitely simpler.

Re-Tweet This Post

I’ve been looking for a healthy, but more daring chicken recipe on the Internet. Although my doctor counts chicken as a personal foul on my diet (I’m sometimes allergic to it), I can’t resist inserting one fowl dish on my daily menu. To exaggerate a bit, I think my body simply won’t function without a piece of chicken. It’s my very own operating system

Just as the human body can’t function without food, so does a computer without software. While you may store virtually almost anything on your hard drive, keep in mind that the files or applications that your computer runs on should be cholesterol-free. System registries, actual and virtual memories get clogged when fed with programs that are poorly written, or worse, laced with spyware or adware.

When people get sick, they take in medicine. It’s quite the same in the case of computers. If your unit gets infected with electronic worms or diseases, all you have to do is find a cure for it. Sometimes, all it takes for a PC to be up and running again is to rid its registry of needless instructions coming from parasitical files or programs.

Re-Tweet This Post

Believe it or not, there are people who actually do not want to install anti-virus programs in their systems. No, they’re not hackers or virus authors. In fact, they’re one of those who really detest malware.

One of the reasons why some people shun security programs is that they slow down their computers. I had the same irritating dilemma when I installed Norton’s anti-virus software in my aging AMD K62 computer. Windows XP ran rather seamlessly after I installed it. However, it was almost impossible to shift between programs already when NAV monitored every activity in the system.

I shelved that old PC of mine after the hair-pulling experience. It was virtually impossible to run almost any program in it. System performance improved when I tweaked something on the registry. I’m sure the performance level would’ve gone a few notches higher had I added additional RAM. However, my brother seemed quite satisfied with the speed of my old desktop. I had two more desktops waiting to be upgraded or repaired, so I decided to just give the K62 to him and move on to my other units. So there!

Re-Tweet This Post

There used to be a time when online viruses were just pea-sized files that could easily be downloaded (inadvertently) on your PC via the Internet even on a dial-up connection. Hackers back then were very careful in keeping the size of their creations at a minimum since anti-viruses could easily spot and shoot down large files.

Things have changed since then. Broadband Internet access has revolutionized the way we surf the Web. Downloading files are now as fast as copying them from a CD to your hard drive.

Unfortunately, this massive increase in bandwidth has also spawned a new generation of viruses. Malware authors are fully aware that many users download materials on the Internet without verifying if it’s clean or authentic. As a result, many unwanted programs easily find their way to critical system files.

In order to prevent your PCs from being a gracious virus host, make sure that your firewall is turned on. An anti-virus is also a must. Without these two, your system registry will most likely be mangled. The irritating consequence of course is a PC beset with numerous problems that slow its processes down. Arggh!

Re-Tweet This Post

I was browsing through some sports sites on my laptop when I saw my niece downloading a Carmen San Diego game.

I immediately approached her and asked if it’s the “Europe” version or the “World” version. She smiled sheepishly and asked me why I’m interested in a game primarily made for kids. I chuckled a bit and said that “Where in Europe Is Carmen San Diego” was the first PC game that I was able to play.

I don’t know if the version that I played almost 15 years ago was the first Carmen San Diego game. I really had fun playing it even if it’s in monochrome.

There’s nothing good on TV right now, so guess what I’m going to do? I hope the new Carmen has good graphics already. At least I’m sure it’s already in color. I’m using my old laptop, so I’m quite worried that it might run slow. I hope the minimum CPU requirement is just a Pentium III.

Re-Tweet This Post

I know it’s already quite late to be talking about Christmas presents, but I can’t help telling everybody that I got an Acer laptop from my mom

It’s not the latest model though, but it’s not a Celeron either. It’s a Pentium M Centrino. It doesn’t boast much in terms of graphics, but the screen resolution is something to brag about.

There are many things to like about the Acer Aspire 3620. For one thing, it’s pleasing to the eyes. It doesn’t look like a brick like some laptops do. You won’t feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders either when you put it in your backpack.

Don’t get carried away by my review. It’s not the perfect notebook. It has no dedicated video memory. To make matters worse, it only comes with 256MB of RAM. It could be upgraded to 1GB, but for those who don’t have the extra bucks, you’re virtually stuck with a unit that constantly has amnesia.

I got my laptop to run faster without having to burn my savings for memory. It turned out that my system registry has been cluttered and modified by certain applications. They are not exactly viruses or malwares. However, these programs usually complicate the registry which, in turn, makes the overall system performance slow.

The screen still freezes sometimes even if I got some errors fixed. However, it now performs much better than it did before I got my system registry checked and fixed.

Re-Tweet This Post

Have you ever wondered why there isn’t any company that’s bold enough to really challenge Microsoft in the OS business?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those who want Microsoft’s head for eating up almost all of the software pie. In fact, I think that Bill Gate’s men have done tremendously well in multiplying the things that a PC could do.

However, as with any industry, a healthy competition wouldn’t hurt. On the contrary, it may even improve software development to a level that has never been seen before. Many are complaining that Window’s beauty is just skin deep. It has been proven a number of times that its design is somewhat flawed. Hackers could easily get into it, modify its Windows registry and alter critical files. How else would you explain the countless patches that Microsoft issues almost incessantly?

I want an OS that can really harness the full potential of today’s processors. Many say that CPUs are not just fast enough or can’t keep up with the pace set by software engineers. Well, if you ask me, I think that many software, including operating systems, can run fast even on older processors if program writers would just take the time to find a way to quench their product’s thirst for more computing power.

What do YOU think?

Re-Tweet This Post