Optimize and Secure your Computer

							Optimize Your Computer

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

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Every Machine needs the Preventive Maintenance to run efficiently & avoid the major breakdowns. When we Install any Operating System it is not always configured to run optimally. This will install with the default settings configured in the package itself. But if we want to get most out of our computers then there are some tips on how to improve the performance.

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Defined tips works for all version on Windows. These are independent of the windows flavors only the screens are different in different windows flavors.

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance
• There are some tips which can be done only during the fresh Operating System Installation

– Choose The File System:
• FAT32 or NTFS
(NTFS will not work with Windows95, 98 & ME)

– Choose Right Partitioning:
• Recommended Partitions are 2

– Install Proper Drivers:
• Install Proper Drivers Provided by the hardware Vendors, do not use the generic drivers.

– Manually Manage Computer Memory:
• When your computer's physically installed RAM is running low, Windows adds available memory by using a paging file, generally known as virtual memory, on the hard disk to simulate physical RAM. By default, the virtual memory paging file that is created during installation is 1.5 times the physical RAM on your PC.

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance
Therefore, a computer that has 1GB of installed RAM will have 1.5GB of virtual memory. You can Manually change the Size of the virtual memory. To optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible. When you select drives, follow these guidelines: a) Try to avoid having a paging file on the same drive as the system files, usually drive C:\ b) Do not put multiple paging files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive.

Manually change the size of the virtual memoryRight Click on My Computer--Click Properties--Advanced--In performance click on Settings--Advanced---Virtual Memory--Change

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

Type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Max. size (MB) box, and then click Set. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply Changes. NOTE: After you change the size of the paging file, you may be prompted to restart Windows. If you are prompted to restart, the changes will not take effect until Windows is restarted . Min. = 1.5 x Total RAM & Max = Min. x 3

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

Manually Optimize the Memory Usage
You can optimize your computer's memory usage to reflect your specific needs. If your computer is used as a workstation instead of as a server, you can increase Performance by devoting more memory to your programs. Your programs will work faster and the system cache size will remain the default size that was included with Windows XP. Right Click on My Computer--Click Properties--Advanced--In performance click on Settings--Advanced---Memory Usage--Select Programs. As shown below:

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

Clean UP Disk Errors (Run Once a Week)
When your computer or Program Crashes because of any reason, then this will creates error’s in you Hard Disk. Microsoft Windows has a inbuilt tool to repair these types of Errors call ― Disk Check or Error Checking‖.
Open My Computer--Right Click on the drive (C: or D:)--Properties—Tools-- In error Checking Option Click on Check Now button. A check disk dialogue box will display as shown below :

When you click on start a message box that says you can schedule the disk check to start the next time you restart your computer. Click Yes. The next time you restart your computer, it will automatically run through a disk check before displaying your login screen. After the disk check finishes, Windows will automatically bring you to Your login screen

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

Remove Temporary Files (Run Once a Week)
Your computer make & stores temporary files when you are working on a web-Browser or even working on a file in your programs like Word, Excel etc. Over a time period these temp files will decrease your computer performance. You can use the Windows Inbuilt Disk Cleanup tool to delete these files Open My Computer--Right click on Drive (C: or D:) --Click Properties--Select General & Click on the button disk cleanup. Disk cleanup calculates how much space you can free from your hard disk drive (Fig-1). After the scan this will shows a list of files which you can remove from your computer as shown below in (Fig-2):

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

Increase Access Speed of HDD (Run Once a Month)
When files are created, Deleted or Modified it will not be stored in one place of the hard disk. They will get scattered across the HDD & this will decrease the performance of a drive. Because the drive head have to search for the entire pieces of a file on the different locations. To overcome from this issue there is the inbuilt tool in Ms-Windows called ―Disk Defragmenter‖. This utility is designed to collect these types of files & place them at the same location of the HDD blocks. Go to Start--Programs--Accessories--System Tools--Click on Disk Defragmenter . Select the Drive & click on Analyze. After analyzing your HDD this will display a message stated that start the Disk Defragmenter. Click on Disk Defragmenter. The Disk Defragment will recognize files & organize them by program & size as shown below

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

Disable unneeded Programs & Services that Run Automatically
Along with the Operating system when Windows starts, there is also a host of Services & programs Involved. Many of these are necessary to operate the system correctly but many of them you don’t use at all, disable these programs & Services this will help your Operating system to boot smoothly & Faster. To see the Services which are running go to Start--Control Panel--Administrative tools--Click on Services & choose the Service which you want to enabled & disable

Optimize Your Computer for a Peak Performance

To see the Programs that are running in the startup
Go to Start--Run--Type ―msconfig‖ & Press Enter You will get the windows shown below: Uncheck the box to disable the programs which you don’t want to run in the startup

Secure Your Computer

HughesNet Fusion

Secure your Computer
Here are some tips to secure your computer from Virus, Trojans, Spyware & other Intrusions

A) Install Antivirus Software
If your computer doesn't have the antivirus your are leaving you computer for Virus attacks, Trojan & the other intrusions. Kindly install the appropriate Antivirus & configure the Software for proper scanning of the system & update the virus definitions files on regular basis

B) Maintain Current Software & Updates
Keep your Software update by applying the latest Service packs & Patches. Microsoft provides all the latest patches & the updates free of cost for his products. To updates your software you have to run Microsoft Windows update on your system or visit Microsoft website to install all critical & recommended updates for your system. To start the Microsoft updates go to Start--Control Panel--System-- Select ―Automatic Updates‖-- Click on Automatic (Recommended) & select the time/frequency to start the automatic updates as shown in the Picture

Secure your Computer

Secure your Computer

C) Personal Firewall (The Feature is not inbuilt in win98 & 2000)
A Personal Firewall protects your machine against internet attacks & the network scans. If your doesn’t have the Firewall you can download the same from internet & install in you Computer. Win XP has inbuilt ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) by using this feature you can control what information reaches your computer from Intenet & LAN. To enable this feature Go to Start--Control Panel--Network Connection-- Right click on appropriate connection— Properties--Advanced-- Select Settings & choose ON (recommended)

Secure your Computer

E) Avoid Threats to your Computer
i) Set Strong Password & Never Share with anyone Use a strong password, if someone gets your password they will access your private data ii) Disable Guest Account Someone can access you computer if the account is enabled iii) Don’t Click on random Links Do not click any link which you cannot verify. To avoid viruses spread via Mail/Messenger. iv) Beware of E-mail attachment from unknown peoples or with a strange Subject Line v) Don’t download the unfamiliar software's from the Internet like Kazza, Bonza, Gator, Hotbar etc. vii) Log Out or Lock your Computer When you are away Forgetting to Logout possessing a security risk with any computer that is accessible to other Peoples. Whenever you step away from your computer press ―Cltrl+Alt+Del‖ & click on Lock Computer or use ―Windows Logo Key + L‖ viii) Frequently Backup you important Files ix) Check your system for Weakness Use the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) to measure how secure your system is. The MBSA is a vulnerability assessment tool for Microsoft Windows that scans your system and provides a list of recommendations to improve security. You can download the MBSA free of charge at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/.

Secure your Computer
F) Deploy Encryption on Confidential Documents If you have highly sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) or other high business impact (HBI) information on your computer, encrypt it using Encrypting File System (EFS). Dedicate a separate folder for encrypted content and name it something like ―Secure.‖ This way, when you encrypt the folder, you can ensure that all files and subfolders within that folder are automatically encrypted too. Right-click the folder you wish to encrypt and click Properties. On the General tab, click Advanced. In the Advanced Attributes dialog box, select Encrypt contents to secure data. When prompted, select the option to encrypt all files and subfolders within the folder. To decrypt the folder, reverse these steps. For more information Kindly visit www.microsoft.com

Secure your Computer
F) Protect Documents with Password To protect your word, Excel & Power Point files with a password. To use the feature go to Tools--Options--Security & in the password box assign the password

Note: If you plan to share the Word document or Excel file, select the Read-only recommended check box for the highest level of security. This option is not available in PowerPoint.

Secure your Computer
F) Create Restore Point: Before Installing or Changing the settings of any Program create a Restore Point. This is the inbuilt utility in WINXP. This will help you if there is something wrong after any change or any program Installation. Go to Start--Programs--Accessories--System tools--Click on System Restore System Restore Dialog box will appear. Select Create a Restore Point and click on Next & Type the Restore Description in the Dialog Box & click on Create. This will create the Restore Point as shown below

SOLUTIONS

1)

MS-Office 2007 Word, Excel, PowerPoint Files are not Running in Office 2003

Solution:i) Download & Install Service Pack 3 For Office 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/sp

ii) Download & Install ―FileFormatConverters‖ for MS-Office from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae94aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
The file converter will run Automatically whenever you open the file, created in Office 2007 , You need not to run the converter Manually

Thank you