Troubleshooting - Slow Vista Computer

The main criticism about Windows Vista is the amount of computer resources need to perform everyday tasks. Even with a high powered computer there are certain things that will slow a computer down regardlesss what you have in your case. Built into Vista is a few tools and utilities that you can you troubleshoot slow boot times/start up along with performance issues.

Slow boot time/start up can be caused for various reasons such as Windows still trying to obtain an internet or network connection. In this case, there is four basic tools that will help you diagnose such problems in Vista:

Performance Self-Tuning and Diagnostics: Provides instrumentation and services that support user-driven and tool-driven diagnoses of performance problems, such as media glitching, slow application startup, slow system startup, and network-related delays.

This tool is built into Vista and can be run from

• Left click on the Start Orb
• Then go to the Control Panel, System Maintenance
• Performance Information, and Tools
• In the left window click on Advanced tools
  

Passwords and ID Security

We all struggle with remembering password for the shopping, banking, and other websites we visit on a regular basis. Then there are those who would shop online if it was not fear of getting their credit card or other personal information stolen along with their money. Today, I want to share with you a good tool that is secure and easy to use.

I am writing to you about Robo Form. It has been around for years. It start out as free. Today, Robo Form is only $30. A very small price to pay for the peace of mind, and the ease of use.

RoboForm allows the login process of user name and password to be fast and easy. Once you have install RoboForm, it memorizes and securely stores each user name and password from the first time you log into a website. It will automatically supply the approbate fields with required information upon returning.

When you click RoboForm will navigate to a Web site, enter your username and password and click the submit button for you. Even when it comes to filling out those long registration checkout forms is simple. Just left click on your RoboForm Identity and RoboForm fills-in the form for you.

You will no longer need to remember what seems like hundreds of passwords. Just remember the master password, then you have access all the others.

Taskbar Thumbnails

As computers get faster, the availability of nice cute features become more common. One if these features is a thumbnail preview when you hover the cursor over an item in the task bar.

It may not seem important, but if you are like me who has several programs open at the same time. I do forget what is on a particular application.

In the screen shot to the right. I had paused iTunes several minutes earlier to answer a phone call. Then I got busy looking at a webpage. I had forgotten what I had been watching iTunes. So I just moved my cursor over the iTunes link in the taskbar.

Up pops the window of iTunes. Now I am reminded that I was watching DLTV with Veronica Belmont and Robert Herran.

Snipping Tool

In Windows Xp, I would press the Print Scrn key if I wanted to take a screen shot of what is on my desktop. Then I would paste and edit it in Photofiltre or Paint. Windows Vista comes comes with what is titled Snipping Tool. This allow you to take screen shots and edit within one little application that is part of Windows Vista.

You can get to the Snipping Tool program by going to Accessories folder in the All Programs section. Once open you will be asked to highlight the area of your desktop you want to capture as a screen shot. Afterwards that area is put inside the application. From there you can highlight certain areas with a pen and then save it.

This is great when you want to share part of your desktop with someone else.

There Is Always Help

One of the things that make the World Wide Web so great is the availability of information. No matter what the subject there is several website or blogs that contain information on the subject.

This Sunday morning I have listed the top 10 websites that I go to for help about Windows Vista.

1. PCmag.com
2. Support 4 Vista
3. Cnet Forums
4. Life Hacker
5. Windows Vista Magazine
6. Windows Super Site
7. Microsoft's Vista
   
8. Win Vista Club
9. ITs Vista
10. Windows Vista Blog
    

Run DOS Games On Vista

I have found a lot of people who love to play the older DOS games. Windows Vista does not allow you to run those classic DOS games. This has prompted some good programmers to write a workaround so you can play the classic games.

DOSBox is the program you will need to download to run those older DOS games. At first impression the website looks real scary. Once I got pass the ugly guy in the banner, I found a lot of good information. There is a program this that will run inside Windows. It allows you to run older DOS games in full screen mode. He also has another webpage that show how well those games will run inside his little program.

If you want to find out more about running DOS games inside Windows Vista you can go to Hackszine.

Personalize Your Computer

One of the things that has make Microsoft Windows so popular is the ways inwhich you can personalize the background, the icons, the sounds the computer makes, along with many other features. In pervious versions of Windows, you would right click on a empty section of the Desktop and left click on Properties. Windows Vista is no different. However there is one exception, instead of Properties, you left click on Personalize.

As you can see in the screen shot on the left all the options you have. You can change:
-The Color of windows you open
- The Background picture
- Your Screen Saver
- Sounds when Windows Vista does certain things
- How your mouse reacts when you move it
-The general theme of how your computer looks.
-The level of detail you computer monitor shows

Vista Search

There is nothing more frustrating than downloading a file, or saving a Word document and not remembering where you put it. In the case you can not remember where that birthday picture of your ten year old nice is there is a quick and simple solution.

• Left click on the the Start Orb
• Type in the search box *jpg (that is hold down the Shift key then press the top 8 key.)

In the column above the search box, Vista will start listing all the pictures with the jpg file extension.

When it comes to all windows that you open in Vista, there will be a search box in the top left corner. Microsoft has built in this feature to save you time when it comes to finding those misplaced picture's, mp3's, or other files, on your computer.

Resource Monitor - Intro

Ever wonder what you computer is doing? Have you ever wondered if your processor is being over worked? Have you ever noticed that your computer suddenly got slow, then you started to panic?

In Windows Vista there is another tool, beside the Task Manager it investigate what is happening with you computer. It is call the Resource Monitor. You open up the Task Manager by doing the 3-finger salute. Then at the bottom right you left click on Resource Monitor.

Through this monitor you can see in graph form and number wise four important aspects of your computer.

1. CPU - How hard your processor is working.
2. Disk - The amount and speed that data is being written to your hard drive.
3. Network - Here you can see if any information is going or coming from your computer.
4. Memory - High usage of memory is usually the first place on will see slowness of their computer.
   

Windows Calender

Windows Calender is one of the applications that is put into Windows Vista. This application along with Windows mail, Windows Calender can eliminate the need to get Microsoft's Office Outlook.

You get to Windows Calender from the Start Orb. If is does show up left clicking on the Orb, then you will have to go to All Programs.

In the left column, you have the current month calender. Below that is option to have multi calenders. At the bottom of the left column is a space to keep track of daily tasks.

The center column is daily appointments. It is broken into hours. You can view day, work week, week, and month from the View menu at the top of Windows Calender.

Finally the left column allows to to do some more customization.

Windows Experience Index

The Experience Index is designed to help you judge what your expeinece is going to be like when using Windows Vista on a specific computer. You can see how the hardware stacks up against Windows Vista. This way you can identify where a little upgrade here or there could improve your computer's performance.

You get to the Windows Experience Index by holding down the Windows key and pressing the Pause/Break key.

The Windows Experience Index measures five major things that will affect you computers performance.

1. RAM random access memory
2. CPU central processing unit
3. Hard disk
4. General graphics performance
   
5. 3D graphics capability

Note: That there is not rating for the software or programs that you are using on that specific computer. For that you will have to consult the softwares recommended requirements.

File Association - Change

Yesterday, a customer brought his computer into where I work. He was having trouble opening his email attachments. His friends was able to open the same email attachments with no problem.

I started up his computer on the test bench. I had him open his email and one of the attachments that he said he was having problems opening. It was less than a minute I saw the problem.

His email attachment was a ".doc" file. His computer he had not opened those files in Word, yet. I moved the attachment to his Desktop, then right clicked on it. I then left clicked on the Properties option. At the top of the properties option where is reads, Opens with: I left clicked on change, then selected Word.

Now he was able to open his Word email attachments just by left clicking on them.

From time to time when a program gets install to open specific files the association does not get connected. Then you have to connect the two manually. That is what I had done in this case.

Instant Search - More Detail

The Instant Search box is downright may not be that obvious. It is in the Start menu, Control Panel, Windows Media Player, Windows Explorer, and even certain Vista applications (like Contacts and Windows Mail). This makes it great when your trying to find a specific picture or program.

There are two important things you will want to understand about Instant Search.

1. It is context-sensitive, meaning it will begin the search from whatever program or window that is open. When you search is with the Control Panel is open you will see Control Panel results ahead of any others. If Photo Gallery is open, the search will begin from Photo Gallery.
2. Instant Search is dynamic, Meaning it works as you type. The search is narrows the results a bit further with each letter (or number) you add to the search. Type “su,” for instance, and you’ll immediately see all documents, applications, and other items that contain those letters. Keep typing, however, until you get to “summer.”

Practice doing some Instant Searchs. Left click on the Start orb and then click Search in the right-hand pane. This will open Vista’s basic Search window. This search will look on all the drives on your computer. You can narrow your search by show only buttons across the top, or click one to quickly filter your search results.

System Restore

System Restore is not a back up of files or programs. System Restore is save setting a different times. It is meant to be use if a install of a program of a printer goes bad. Then you can rollback the setting on your computer to a previous known good time.

An example is what happen to me this week. This elderly gentleman brought in his computer and printer. The printer would only print what looked like computer code. After trying to uninstalling and reinstalling his printer drivers. It stopped working all together. Finally, I used System Restore to a time before he bought the printer. I reinstalled the printer worked just fine afterwards.

To get to System Restore:

• Click on Start Orb then left click on Computer and select Properties
• In the left margin click Advanced system setting
• In System Protection tab

It is from this place than you can set a system restore point before you install any software or hardware. However, it is a good practice that you have you computer create system restore points automatically, just in case something goes wrong.

Disk Defragmenter

Just like your car needing a periodical tune up, so does your computer. Until Windows Vista there was a graphical representation that allow you to watch the process of cleaning your computer. However, Vista just lets you know that it is being done along when the job is finished.

Disk Cleanup removes all the unused and deleted files. Defragmenting organizes the remaining files. This preserves the integrity of the remaining data along increase retrieval time of those files.

To Defrag your hard drive do the following steps.

1. Left click on the Start Orb
2. Go to All Programs
   
3. Left click on Accessories, then System Tools and finally Disk Defragmenter
4. Click Defragment Now

NOTE: If you know that your computer is going to be running, you can schedule the defragmenting process when it is convenient for you.

Disk Cleanup

Over the years hard drives have gotten larger. Because of this regular maintenance has become less important.

It is like moving into a bigger house and not having to do spring cleaning every year. Instead a general cleaning of the closets and the garage are just not done. Unused items and clutter just start to pile up. This clutter will slow down your computer's performance. It means that your computer has to wade through more stuff to find the files you want.

The average computer user should do Disk Cleanup about once a month. Those who use their temp files and delete stuff should run it more often.

The steps for going to Disk Clean Up is the same in XP as well as Vista. To run Disk Clean Up

• Left click on the Start Orb
• Go to All Programs
  
• Then Accessories
  
• System Tools
• And finally Disk Clean Up

All you have to is walk through the wizard that takes you through the steps to cleaning out the clutter.

Note: The illustration on the right is of a computer that was taken out of the box and saw heavy use. It had not run disk clean up. The customers complaint was slow performance.

Increase Performance - Services

One of the major complaints about Windows Vista has been its' use of system resources. There are rumors that when Service Pack 1 gets install on everyone's computer, in March or April, the bulk of this problem will be solved.

Services are programs that run in the background for the sole purpose of making things go faster when we click on a icon or do most anything on computer. Depending upon what you use your computer for some of these services are not needed. Simply by changing some of these services from Automantic to Manual mode can greatly increase the performance of your computer.

Black Viper, is one of the most respected experts when it comes to tweaking one's computer for optimum performance. A lot of what he writes about is for after the installation of SP1. If you are comfortable enough in editing the services, I would suggest that you reads Black Viper's Notes For A Happier Computer And User.

There are other people who just like to make adjustments to anything, just to see if it could run fast and more efficient. Tweak Vista.com is another website about things you can do to improve the performance of your Windows Vista computer.

I would strongly recommend before you start doing any of these people's recommend tweaks that you take the following steps, just in case something goes really wrong.

1. Back up all you data files and settings
2. Create a bootable recovery disk
3. Write down what setting you have change and how to change them back.
   

This blog is not written to the geek. It is written to the average computer user. However, it is good to know a little bit about what can or can not be done. That is why I have given you some links to information that would be good to share with the individual who you go to for your personal computer help.

Task Manager

After opening the Task Manager, most people will check it to see if;

1. If a specific applications are running, non responsive, or not running.
2. The amount of the processor that is being used.
3. How much of the memory (RAM) is being used.
4. The Processes are what programs are running in the background to make the computer work the way you want.
5. Services that are in use are separated out by different tabs. The different is that a can be one or more processes that adds functionality to Windows by providing support to other programs.
   
6. The tab that is next to the right is labeled Networking. It will tell you your upload and download speeds and volume.
7. The far right tab has to do with the and their login the to specific computer you are looking at the task manager.
   

Three Finger Salute

Just like Windows XP, and other versions of Windows before it, Windows Vista has what has been commonly called, the Three Finger Salute. In Vista access the 3 key combination is pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time.

Depending upon the way your computer is configured the traditional Three-Finger-Salute will give a menu with several options. These options are:

1. Lock the computer - This will keep that family member or coworker from using the computer while you are taking a bathroom break.
2. Switch Users - This option is available only if there are two or more user accounts on the computer. If there is more than one user account, it is handy to switch between users quick and easily.
   
3. Log off - Keeps the computer on but closes the current users login. Here we have another handy option for the computer who has more than one user accounts.
   
4. Change a password - This feature I see very few people use. If the current user needs to change their password. Here is a quick and easy place to do it.
5. Start Task Manager - The Task Manager is a great diagnostic tool. You can see the system performance, running processes, and other valuable information. We will cover it in tomorrow's post.

Photo Gallery - Tools

Microsoft put into Photo Gallery some basic tools that will help you make those pictures look better, before you send them on to your family or friends.



At the top of Photo Gallery's main window left click on Fix. This will open the photo you selected into a new window. On the right hand side is a menu with five options. These option are to help you do some basic clean up and adjustment of you photos.

1. Auto Adjust. This feature will examine the photo and automatically adjust its brightness, contrast, color, and tint with a click of the button.
2. Adjust Exposure. This option expands thus giving you two choices; brightness and contrast. Each can be manually edited by the use of its' own slide bar.
3. Adjust Color. Here this tool expands to three options, color, tint, and saturation. The color choice lets you change to cooler or warmer colors. The tint lets you put in more accurate color to the individual picture. Finally, saturation which determines if the images colors are virtually gone (grayscale) or a deeply rich color.
4. Crop Picture. In my opinion this is a must. I seem to always have a picture that needs to be trimmed and rotated. This is the tool that will do it.
5. Fix Red Eye. Red eye removal works quite well. Most digital camera, today, have this feature built into them. I would first have the camera set for red eye removal. Then use this feature it your subjects still have red eye.
   

Note: At the bottom of the menu on the right side is an undo edit button. This is just in case your edit did not look so good. You can start over from the beginning.