52. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 3

By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com

In part three of our computer optimization guide we wrap-up with some final performance tips. This part focuses on Diskeeper 2010 Professional, a tool to optimize your hard drive.

What is fragmentation?

Imagine that a hard drive is like a filing cabinet. Your computer places files and folders into this filing cabinet and accesses them when needed. The computer's problem is that it does not insert files and folders into the cabinet in any particular order. Making matters worse, a single file may be fragmented into many small pieces when saved to the hard drive, like taking pages from one document and putting them into different drawers. This drags down performance because when the computer wants to access a file it has to go to several different locations on the hard drive, and accessing data on a hard drive is not instantaneous.

Defragmentation has the opposite effect of fragmentation -- it takes those fragments and consolidates them, putting the hard drive back in order. This generally means the hard drive only needs to go to one location to access a file, which is very beneficial for performance. The hard drive is the absolute slowest component in any computer, about 1000x slower than the next fastest component (memory/RAM). Therefore, any increase in performance will be noticeable.

In this article, we will be looking at a product called Diskeeper 2010, which is designed to handle and prevent fragmentation.

Diskeeper 2010 Overview

Diskeeper 2010 Professional is a $59.95 storage device performance optimizer. The price seems steep given there are many free defragment products on the market (Windows has one), but Diskeeper is more than a simple defragmenter. Diskeeper includes several notable technologies that are designed to keep a computer running in top shape.

IntelliWrite -- this technology helps prevent fragmentation from occurring; it is claimed to prevent fragmentation up to 85% by intelligently writing files to the hard drive.

InvisiTasking -- this technology allows for real-time defragmenting, meaning it is no longer necessary to leave your computer alone while defragmenting it.

I-FAAST -- this technology monitors your activity and moves the most commonly-accessed files to the fastest locations on the hard drive.

Boot time defragmentation -- Diskeeper can defragment the Windows boot files and other system files during startup; these files cannot be moved around while Windows is running.

Diskeeper has some other notable features including the ability to defragment a hard disk with less than 1% free space (most defragment products need a certain % free space to move files around) and 64-bit operating system support.

Diskeeper 2010 Overview

Diskeeper has a straightforward interface; the main page shows storage volumes present on the system and shows which Diskeeper technologies are enabled on it.

It is simple to enable and disable technologies; the icons at the top launch setup windows for each. For our test system, we enabled IntelliWrite, automatic defragmentation, I-FAAST, and performed a boot time defragmentation.

At the bottom of the interface is the Dashboard -- this presents real-time statistics for your hard drive. It shows, for example, how many fragments were prevented, a read/write time performance improvement, volume health with recommendations, and resource usage by Diskeeper. This information is generally unnecessary to keep tabs on, but enthusiasts and those wishing to learn a bit how their hard drive operates will enjoy it.

In Use

Automatic Defragmenting

Diskeeper's automatic defragment feature worked seamlessly -- while the hard disk activity light was frequently active on our test computer, we noticed no choppiness or stuttering as a result. Diskeeper actually allows users to watch how it is using resources (as shown above); it only defragments the volume when sufficient resources are available and it will not affect your computing experience -- this was definitely the case for us. A traditional defragmenter basically requires users to leave the computer alone for several hours while it works due to performance slow-downs associated with disk activity.

After just a few hours of having automatic defragmentation enabled, our hard drive went from the readout on the left to the readout on the right (the red is bad):

Diskeeper eliminated nearly all fragmentation without us knowing -- very nice.

Fragmentation Prevention & Handling

Diskeeper reported that IntelliWrite prevented 87% of the fragmentation that would normally have occurred on our test machine -- very impressive. Combined with automatic defragmentation, it kept our hard drive in top performance shape with no interaction on our part.

Additionally, Diskeeper reported that IntelliWrite improved read and write access time for fragments by 50% but we have no way to verify this.

Boot Time Improvements

Boot time defragmentation, which is designed to reduce startup time by optimizing boot files, worked well. On our test system, an HP ProBook 5310m notebook with Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and a 320GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drive (ST9320423AS), we measured boot times from the point the Windows logo appeared to the log-on screen.

Before boot time defragment: 13.5s

After boot time defragment: 12.4s

This is about a 10% improvement; our test system is blazing fast as it is, so any increase here was impressive and would only be magnified on slower systems.

Diskeeper Conclusion

Diskeeper is an impressive product in its own right. If it were simply an after-the-fact defragmenter we would likely not be impressed, however its active features -- preventing fragmentation by intelligently writing data to the hard drive and on-the-fly defragmentation -- were impressive and saved us from doing it manually. Diskeeper even goes so far as to optimize frequently-used files for faster access. We experienced no issues with Diskeeper running in the background. While it is not possible to numerically gauge the performance improvement from defragmenting the hard drive, we observed a noticeable performance improvement after having Diskeeper installed for a few days; commonly used programs opened faster and boot time improved. Additionally, we noticed shut-down and log-on times were also reduced. We feel Diskeeper's $59.95 price tag to be somewhat steep, but for those wanting to squeeze the best performance possible out of their hard drives, Diskeeper 2010 is the product to buy.

Pros

• Seamless defragmentation
• Prevents fragmentation
• Provides real-time disk statistics
• Easy to use

Cons

• Steep price tag

Computer Optimization Guide Conclusion

In our three-part guide we showed you how to not only improve your computer's performance, but also how to improve your productivity by changing the way you actually use your computer. In part one we went over basic performance improvement tips (reducing startup items to improve log-on time and free up resources, getting rid of unused programs, cleansing the system of junk files, and organizing your files); in part two we showed you handy keyboard shortcuts to improve your productivity (a faster approach to navigating through Windows and text editing) and how to back up your files; lastly in part three we demonstrated how Diskeeper 2010 can help keep your system in top shape. We hope this series has taught you something and improved your computing experience -- remember to pass the tips along!

50. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 1

By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com

This three-part series is designed to help everyday computer users improve their productivity by optimizing their computer's performance, making use of handy shortcuts in the Windows operating system, and creating and maintaining a backup schedule. Let's get started with part one, improving performance.

The first part of this guide will cover optimizing computer performance. The directions are aimed at Windows Vista and 7 users; XP users can also follow along though not all steps will be the same.

Disclaimer: You follow the advice in this guide at your own risk. NotebookReview.com is not responsible for any damages or otherwise.

Remove Unnecessary Startup Programs

Performance benefit: High

Difficulty Level: Medium

A program is typically only run when needed -- for example, only running Microsoft Word while typing a document. Unfortunately, many software vendors think that their software needs to run all the time in the background for whatever reason, checking for updates, pre-loading, and so on. My response to these vendors is: No. There are specific programs that need to run all the time -- antivirus, mainly -- but no reason that applications such as Apple's QuickTime need to sit around and take up resources. We are going to prevent these programs from starting up with Windows (and therefore slowing down your logon time). The programs will still function fine; they will simply not run when not needed.

Press and hold down the Windows Key and then press R; this will open up the Run prompt. In the box, type msconfig and click OK. This will bring up a System Configuration window:

Click on the Startup tab:

The startup tab shows all programs that can start with Windows; if an item's box is checked, that means it is run during startup.

If your computer is like mine, there are a lot of programs installed on it and chances are a lot of startup items to complement them. Our goal is to reduce the number of startup items to a minimum.

The hard part is determining which items can be disabled. Some items have a descriptive name such as "GoogleToolbarNotifier", but others may not even have a pronounceable name. I am not able to provide a full list of what can be unchecked, but in general the following can be without consequences:

• GoogleToolbarNotifier (associated with the Google Internet browser toolbar)
• Jusched (Java update scheduler)
• Acrotray (associated with Adobe products)
• WinZip Quick Pick (associated with the WinZip compression application)
• Qttask (Apple QuickTime)
• iTunesHelper (Apple iTunes)

The items listed above are nothing but a complete waste of your computer's resources (RAM) and add extra time onto startup -- disable them by simply unchecking the boxes and clicking Apply. Exit msconfig when done and restart your computer to finish. You can disable as many items as you want at one time.

To find if you can disable more items, do an Internet search for the name and see what comes up. Be sure to cross-reference the results to verify what you are reading is accurate. By reducing the number of startup items, your computer's boot-up and log-on times and RAM usage will be greatly reduced.

Uninstall Unused Programs

Performance benefit: Medium

Difficulty: Easy

As noted I install a lot of programs on my computer, yet I rarely use most of them. These unused programs take up hard drive space and may be eating up additional resources if they are running in the background. They also clutter the programs list. It is time to do a little housecleaning.

The first step in this process is figuring out which programs you need and do not need. Click Start and then All Programs; make a list of them.

Now let us get rid of the programs you do not use. Click Start and then Control Panel, then "Uninstall a Program" under Programs. It may take several minutes for this window to load completely.

Get started -- remove the programs on your do not use list. Double-click the item in the list and follow the accompanying wizard to uninstall it. Be careful -- do not uninstall programs blindly. If you do not recognize an item then do an Internet search for that item and cross-reference the results. Only uninstall items you are sure are extraneous.

Clean Out and Organize Your Documents

Performance Benefit: Little

Productivity Benefit: High

Difficulty: Easy

This is another chore I always put off -- cleaning out and organizing the "My Documents" folder. I download a great deal of programs and files from the Internet, and every time I save something I blindly dump it in My Documents. After a few months, My Documents gets uncomfortably crowded and finding items becomes nearly impossible without using search. Last week I finally got fed up and organized everything.

While organizing files has little performance benefit, the productivity benefit is high. Organized folders make it far easier to locate files, which save time.

Everyone will have a different style of organizing their personal documents; I order by category (for example, my Pictures folder is organized by the location where I took the pictures) and then by date -- this makes it simple to drill down into different categories. Regardless of your organizational style, remember the idea is to keep the number of clicks required to get to commonly-accessed content to a minimum.

Clean Out Your System with CCleaner

Performance Benefit: Medium

Difficulty: Easy

This final step in this guide is probably the simplest of all. CCleaner is a freeware application -- it can be downloaded here. Install the program once downloaded and launch it (click Start, Programs, CCleaner, CCleaner).

This program will scan your computer's hard drive for unnecessary files and other items strewn about by careless programs (temporary files and so on). The program defaults are safe; if you want to save your Internet Explorer browser history, be sure to uncheck that box. For Firefox users, click the Application tab and uncheck the same box under Firefox.

To clean the hard drive, click "Run Cleaner" and let the program go; it may take some time to run.

Conclusion

This wraps up part one of three of the NotebookReview.com Computer Optimization Guide. Following the steps in this guide should yield a healthy increase in performance. Stop back for part two, which will show you handy Windows shortcuts and detail how to create and maintain a backup schedule.

51. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 2

By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com

NotebookReview's Computer Optimization Guide is designed to help you and your computer work faster together to be more productive. In part one we focused on improving your computer's performance, and now we will focus on improving the way you use a computer.

This guide is aimed at Windows XP/Vista/7 users with a basic understanding of computer operation and usage.

Learn Windows Shortcuts

A computer typically has two input devices -- a keyboard and a mouse. While it is straightforward to click on things on-screen, there is a faster way to navigate through programs and give commands -- the keyboard. Just about every Windows user knows Ctrl + Alt + Delete, but do you know any more? You will.

Windows XP/Vista/7 Generic Keyboard Shortcuts

• Alt + F4: Closes the current window/program
• Alt + Tab: Holding down Alt and pressing Tab once switches to the previous window you were using; press tab again to switch to the next window
• Windows Key + F1: Launches Windows help from any program; pressing F1 will launch help for the current program
• Windows Key + M: Minimize all windows; press Windows Key + Shift + M to undo minimize
• Windows Key + D: Show desktop
• Windows Key + E: Open Windows explorer
• Highlight any icon/file in Windows Explorer: Press F2 to rename

Windows 7 Specific Shortcuts

There are some shortcuts specific to Windows 7 that really come in handy:

• Windows Key + Up Arrow: Maximizes current window
• Windows Key + Down Arrow: Minimizes current window
• Windows Key + Left/Right Arrow: Docks current window on left or right side of screen
• Windows Key + Home: Makes all windows transparent except the current window
• Windows Key + Space: Hold to make all windows transparent

Edit Text Faster with Keyboard Shortcuts

Anyone who types on a regular basis is going to find the following shortcuts extremely useful. They are generic and should work in almost any text input area -- Microsoft Word and so on.

• Ctrl + A: Selects everything
• Ctrl + C: Copies selected area
• Ctrl + V: Pastes copied text
• Ctrl + X: Cuts selected text
• Ctrl + Z: Undo
• Ctrl + Y: Redo
• Shift + Arrow Key: Highlights text in that direction from wherever the cursor is (try it!)
• Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Left/right arrow keys go to end/beginning of words, up/down go to beginning of previous/next paragraph
• Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys: Left/right arrow keys highlight previous/next word, up/down highlight previous/next paragraph

Create and Keep a File Backup Schedule

Corrupted and failed hard drives are the biggest productivity killers of all time -- nothing is worse than losing all your data. For this guide I am going to demonstrate how to do file backups with a free tool from Microsoft called SyncToy -- it can be downloaded here. You will also need a storage device such as an external hard drive or flash drive.

1. Install SyncToy and launch it.

2. Let's assume we want to back up My Documents; on your external storage device, create a folder called My Documents Backup.

3. Now we will use SyncToy to sync the folders in your My Documents folder to the My Documents Backup folder on the external drive.

4. Click Create New Folder Pair at the bottom of SyncToy; it will bring up the window shown to the right

5. The way this works is that the left folder will be synced with the right folder; assuming we want to back up My Documents, click Browse on the Left, select My Documents, and click OK. On the right, select the My Documents Backup folder you created on your storage device and click OK.

6. Click Next; there are three options here. Synchronize is what most will want to do -- it will sync the folder on the left (My Documents) with the folder on the right (My Documents Backup).

7. Click Next; give the action a name and click Finish.

8. Repeat steps 1 -- 7 for however many folders you want to backup.

Now that you have created all folder pairs it is time to run them, therefore syncing all of the folders on your computer to the external storage device. Assuming you want to run them all at once, click the All Folder Pairs item at the bottom:

Click Run All and the syncing will commence. The first sync will take the longest since all of the files need to be copied, but sequential runs will go faster since only new/updated files will be synced.

Ideally, back up your files once per week -- it will take mere minutes and for that you will have the invaluable security of having your data backed up. Just connect your external hard drive, open SyncToy and click Run All - that's it.

Conclusion

In part one of this guide we showed you how to improve your computer's performance, and today we showed you valuable shortcuts and a data backup plan to keep you as productive as possible. Stop back for part three, where we go over additional performance and productivity tips.