Microsoft recently caught my attention with the release of a performance-related hotfix. Blog readers should pay attention to KB2555428. It fixes an issue which can cause Windows 7 to boot extremely slowly. The culprit is System Restore with the slowdown occuring when many restore points have been created. To quote Microsoft Support on the symptoms [...]
No matter how fast your PC is, there’s one thing slowing it down and that is low disk space. It’s probably the no. 1 cause of a sluggish machine and even one that IT pros tend to overlook. In this blog post, I’ll explain why low disk space can make every program slow down to [...]
It’s an age-old PC fact: Protection from malware, intruders, hackers, phishing and even spam comes with a loss in performance. We asked ourselves—is this still true in today’s world of super-fast computers? Have security suite makers learned any lessons from the past and reduced the footprint of their products? Over the past several months, we [...]
Antivirus software provider ESET describes its security solution “Smart Security 4” as “High scanning speed with low memory demands ensures your computers does not slow down.” In this blog post, we’ll determine if ESET’s security suite really is that lightweight and will explain what kind of performance impact you can expect. This test is the [...]
Even if you’ve never heard the term BIOS before, you’re probably familiar with what it does. BIOS is a small software program that is the first code to run when you start your computer. It’s responsible for initializing hardware, boosting operating systems, and it functions as the basic input/output system on the motherboard of a [...]
Since it was first invented by Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web (not to be confused with the Internet) has come a long way. Today websites provide users with a more immersive experience, increased interactivity, complex designs as well as real-time collaboration and community tools, mostly free of cost. Obviously, the technologies used to achieve [...]
At last week’s AllThingsD conference, Microsoft’s President of Windows and Windows Live Division, Steven Sinofsky, unveiled the new Windows 8 user interface for the first time. I’ll take you through five of the absolute highlights presented at the event. Windows Phone 7-like User Interface: It’s all about the tiles Everyone guessed it, including us: Windows [...]
Mechanical hard disks have ruled for ages—but their reign is coming to an end. Uptake of faster, more energy-efficient solid state drives (SSDs) is increasing. Fast boot times and overall performance coupled with a decrease in prices are their major upsides, but users need to take special care of their SSDs. This blog post outlines [...]
TuneUp recently released an update for TuneUp Utilities™ 2011, so I wanted to give you a quick run-down of some of the important changes. Update v10.0.4100 brings the following to the table: The enhanced TuneUp StartUp Manager detects and disables more programs than before and provides more information about them. The current System Health and [...]
While Windows Update is an important part of Microsoft’s operating systems, it’s also one of the more fragile Windows components, and Windows Update issues are among the most common problems that plague users. In this podcast, we’ll cover why installing updates are so important for PC users, the issues users usually encounter with Windows Update, [...]
