Help:
For help or more information on any of these tips, email me.
Defrag and disk clean up:
You should do a defrag and disk clean up at least once a month.
This will help with your PC's performance and response time. (Defrag not really necessary with Windows 7)
Preventing virus infections:
Always scan any flash stick or portable storage device before opening it on your PC.
You can also turn some of the "Auto Run" functions off to prevent your PC from unknowingly opening a device that is infected before you have chance to scan it
Not enough RAM?
You can increase the size of your virtual RAM to compensate not having enough physical RAM. This can help an old rig perform a little better, but note that this does not count as actual RAM and you won't get the same performance as you would from installing more physical RAM.
To do this you need to increase your "page filing size". Follow these instructions:
1. Go to "Control panel"
2. Select "System"
3. Select " Advanced system settings"
4. A new window will open labelled "system properties"
5. Select the "Advanced" tab
6. Click on "settings" button under the "Performance" options
7. Select the advanced tab again
8. Click on the "Change" button
9. Un-tick the block at the top that says "Automatically manage paging file size..."
10. Now tick the circle that says "Custom size"
11. You will now be able to input your "Initial size and maximum size.
The recommended "Initial" size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your system
And 3 times that figure for the "maximum size".
If you have more than one drive in your PC you can do this for each one.
Do not place multiple paging files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive.
Improve performance:
You can improve the speed and performance of your PC by turning off some Windows settings and functions.
This will sacrifice some of the visual effects of your Windows to achieve this. But if you don't mind less pretty but more performance, here's how you do it:
1. Go to "Control panel"
2. Select "System"
3. Select "Advanced tab/ Advanced system" settings
4. A new window will open labelled "system properties"
5. Select the "Advanced" tab
6. Click on "settings" button under the "Performance" options
7. Select the "advanced tab" again
8. Click on the "Change" button
9. You will see a row of 4 little circles and the top one is selected. "Let Windows choose what is best for my computer"
10. You can un-tick that and select one of the other two "Adjust for appearance" or "Adjust for performance"
Or if you are feeling brave you can select custom and try to get the best of both worlds.
If you think you have made a mistake and cant get the setting back just select the default option again and everything will revert back to normal.
IrfanView Easy Operating:
Here are a few quick and easy short cuts you can use.
Once you have opened the pic you want to resize so you can email
press "Ctrl & R" to resize the image. I usually select 1024x768.
Then press "Ctrl & S" to save your resized image somewhere you can easily find it again.
Attach and email.
