Description:
Visual Effects.. Easter Eggs (Intro).. The Book of Mozilla (Firefox).. Random Text in Word..
Contents:
Visual Effects
For Windows XP/Vista
The 'Visual Effects' tab is one of the tabs located in 'Performance Options' on the 'Advance' tab of 'System Properties'. Here you can deselect visual effects to increase the performance of your PC, especially on PCs that do not have much memory, graphics or processing power.
Windows XP
To access the 'Visual Effects' tab, right click on 'My Computer', normally located on the 'Start Menu' or the 'Desktop' and select 'Properties', this will bring up 'System Properties'. Click on the 'Advance' tab, and then the 'Settings' button in the 'Performance' section. This will then bring up 'Performance Options' on the 'Visual Effects' tab.
You can also access 'System Properties' by clicking on 'Start', 'Control Panel' and then double clicking on 'System'
Windows Vista
Right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties' or access 'System' in the 'Control Panel' and then click on 'Advance System Settings' located on the left hand column of that window. This will then bring up 'System Properties'. Click on the 'Advance' tab, and then the 'Settings' button in the 'Performance' section. This will then bring up 'Performance Options' on the 'Visual Effects' tab.
 When you are on the 'Visual Effects' tab, you can deselect some of the visual effects options to increase performance of your PC by reducing the amount of resources Windows XP/Vista uses for them. Or you can select 'Adjust for best performance', which will turn off all visual effects and give you the best performance increase. This option works well on PCs that have the minimum 64MB of RAM required to run Windows XP, and you want to run programs more smoothly.
Note: 'Adjust for best performance' will put Windows XP into the 'Classic' theme, with the grey taskbar, to give the best performance.
Easter Eggs (Intro)
What are Easter Eggs in relation to software?
A virtual Easter Egg in software, is a hidden message, joke or feature that developers have coded into the software. To get to the Egg, you need to follow a set of commands to get there, which I suppose is in relation to a Easter Egg hunt. Some of them are fun to do and can be used to impress your friends.
I've included some of my favourites in this section but also try googling on the Internet for more, as there is all sorts of eggs, hidden references in films, books and music, as well as software!
Happy Easter!
The Book of Mozilla (Firefox)
If you are using Firefox as your Internet browser:
Type in 'about:mozilla' without quotations.
For a verse from 'The Book of Mozilla'?
Even funnier, type in 'about:robots' without quotations!
See what happens...
There are many more 'about:????' phrases, check them out on the Internet.
Random Text in Word
Open up Microsoft Word, to start a new document.
Type in '=rand(99,99)' without quotations.
Press Enter.
Enjoy!
Note how many letters are in the sentence. Also try modifying the numbers in the formula!
Tried in Word 97 and 2000.
Force a Win in Solitaire
Simply press and hold 'Alt' and 'Shift' together and then press '2'
Enjoy!
Tried in Windows XP, not sure if it works in Vista
Security Center
For Windows XP/Vista
The 'Security Center' is a utility that is found in the 'Control Panel' on Windows XP (SP2 and above) and Windows Vista.
It was added into Service Pack 2 of Windows XP to help you identify and manage the security essentials on your PC, and has continued on into Vista. Below is a screenshot of the 'Security Center', on the left for Windows XP and on the right for Windows Vista.
 Click on Screenshot to enlarge In this utility you can check and manage your 'Firewall', 'Automatic Updates', 'Virus Protection' and other security settings, if using Vista.
Firewall: Your firewall is your first defence against threats external to your PC, and it highly recommended to be turned on. A good way to think of a firewall is looking at it as a physical gate that is between your PC and the Internet. This gate can be configured to block software and malicious software from accessing your PC or from sending information from your PC to the Internet.
Automatic Updates: Updates from Microsoft that make sure you have the latest bug and security updates for your PC. This is recommended to be activated as it ensures that updates are automatically downloaded and applied to your PC, so that you are kept up-to-date with any security threats.
Virus/Malware Protection: Checks to see if any anti-virus and spyware (if using vista) are installed to protect your PC. Viruses are programs that can play havoc with your PC, such as deleting files or changing settings. Spyware programs can monitor the Internet sites you visit and steal your personal information. It is recommended that you have installed anti-virus and spyware software on your PC and that it is kept updated, to ensure that if any infections are found on your PC they can be removed or quarantined.
In order to keep your PC performance to a good level it is recommended that you have the above options turned on and that updates for Windows, Anti-Virus and Spyware are downloaded and installed on a regular basis. Be sure to schedule and run scans for viruses and spyware on a regular basis as well.
Windows Update
For Windows XP/Vista
In order to keep the performance of your PC to a good level, it is important to download and install the latest updates for your operating system from Microsoft. This can be done by using the 'Windows Update' utility.
To access the 'Windows Update' utility, click on 'Start', 'All Programs' and 'Windows Update'.
In Windows XP this will take you to an Internet Explorer web page, from here install the Windows update software if needed. You will then get an option to install updates, to simply keep up to date with the latest updates, click on 'Express' (See screenshot below). A list of updates will be retrieved and prioritised, Windows will then automatically download and install them for you.
In Windows Vista the 'Windows Update' application will load up a Windows pane, and from here you can follow the steps to download the updates or click on 'Check for updates' as seen in the screenshot below:
 Installing the recommended updates from Microsoft ensures your PC has the latest fixes for operating system bugs and the latest security updates to help keep your PC safe from Internet security threats.
Be sure to set updates to download and install on an automatic basis if possible, see the 'Security Centre' guide on how to do this.
Note: An Internet Connection is required to download updates. If you do not have an Internet Connection, then it is possible to order a Service Pack CD (updates to a certain date) from Microsoft by contacting them.
Disk Defragmenter
For Windows XP
Disk Defragmenter is a useful tool in improving the performance of your PC, specifically the time it takes for you to access the files and folders on your PC.
Have you ever noticed after you have used your PC frequently (especially a couple of years) the time it takes for you to search, browse and load up files takes longer.
This is because the files on your hard drive or hard disk become fragmented after frequent usage. This means that gaps of free space can occur when you have installed and removed various programs on your PC. Where these programs once were a gap is created, and when you install new programs Windows needs to decide whether to fill the gap or continue on into free space. What can eventually happen is that you end up with a certain set of files for a purpose being installed in multiple areas of the disk, and you are also left with empty unused spaces. The more you use your PC the more fragmented the disks becomes.
Therefore Windows has introduced 'Disk Defragmenter' to help reduce fragmentation on the drive by reorganising these files so that they are in one place, therefore increasing file access time.
In Windows Vista this is normally set to automatically run on a schedule. However in Windows XP it is not, it is good practice to defrag you PC on a monthly or quarterly basis but it depends how often and what you use your PC for. If you are using your PC to just browse the Internet, then defragmentation isn't required to be used on a frequent basis. But if you are using your PC to play games, whereby you install a lot of applications and remove them frequently, then defragmentation would be worth doing.
To access the 'Disk Defragmenter' click on 'Start', 'All Programs', 'Accessories', 'System Tools' and then 'Disk Defragmenter'.
 Once you have opened 'Disk Defragmenter', the process is fairly simple. Select the drive you wish to fragment and then click the 'Analyze' button. Windows will then report if defragmentation is necessary. After that then click on 'Defragment', to start defragmenting the drive.
Warning: Defragmenting the drive can, more often than not, take a long time. The time it takes (usually hours) depends on several factors, such as the capacity (GB) of your disk, the number of files you have and the amount of fragmented files. Therefore you need to perform defragmentation when your PC is not needed in a while.
Disk Cleanup
For Windows OS: Vista/XP
'Disk Cleanup' is the tool to call on if you want to perform a general cleanup of unnecessary files or if you are low on disk space.
To run 'Disk Cleanup', click on 'Start', 'All Programs', 'Accessories', 'System Tools' and then 'Disk Cleanup'.
Here you can then select from a list file categories, the general ones being the 'Recycle Bin', 'Temporary Files' and 'Temporary Internet Files'. Each category indicates the space that can be freed up.
Warning: Make sure that you check the category's correctly and read the description for what each one does, for example you may not want to delete files from the Recycle Bin, that you might yet want to restore.
Windows Task Manager
For Windows OS: Vista/XP
This is the best utility that you can use to monitor the performance of your PC. The 'Task Manager' monitors which programs are being ran and how much of your system resources each program is taking up.
'Task Manager' is effective as it monitors the two main components that run your computer, the CPU and Memory. Without going into too much depth at this time, the CPU (Central Processing Unit), the chip at the core of your PC, it performs all the calculations that programs utilise to perform everyday tasks. The performance of CPUs are measured in several ways but mainly by its clock speed, which in today's standards is measured in gigahertz (GHz). There are two types of memory used by your computer, ROM and RAM, however it is RAM (Random Access Memory) that defines how much and what you can run at one time on your computer.
Therefore because the 'Task Manager' monitors the usage of these components against the programs being ran at any given time. It is effective as you can work out which programs are using up the most of your resources, and then work out if these programs are necessary to have on your PC. If all programs are necessary, it may be a good indication that you need to upgrade your PC. If you don't require the usage of some of the programs installed on your PC, then you can uninstall them or stop them from constantly running when you are not using them. (See 'The msconfig utility' for further details on stopping programs from running).
There are several ways to launch the 'Task Manager':
1.) Right click on the 'TaskBar' and select 'Task Manager'.
2.) Press 'Ctrl' and 'Alt', and then 'Delete' on the keyboard, you may need to then select 'Task Manager' from an option.
3.) Type 'taskmgr' into 'Run' on the 'Start Menu'.
There are other ways to launch the 'Task Manager' but these are the easiest ways to do so.
Once you have launched the 'Task Manager' you will be on the 'Applications' tab, on this tab you are given a basic view (but not the full picture) of what is being ran on your computer at that moment. This is generally a list of the programs that are open on your 'Start Menu'.
 From here you can easily close the program by clicking on 'End Task', or navigate to the program by 'Switch To' and 'Bring to Front'.
To start checking the usage on resources from these programs, right click on a program that is open and select 'Go To Process'. If no programs are open at the moment click on the 'Processes' tab.
 From my example as seen above, I have selected to see the 'Microsoft Paint' application process and this has taken me to the 'Processes' tab. Here you have list of all the programs that are being utilised by 'Windows' at that moment in time. 'Microsoft Paint' is being highlighted in blue and you can see the program being shown as it's executable (.exe), which indicates it is a program, in this case 'mspaint.exe'.
You can see the 'CPU' usage as a percentage from the column, in this case it is '00', as when this screenshot was taken, no activity was taking place, because I was using the 'Task Manager', process 'taskmgr.exe', which is using 6% of the CPU (as seen above). On the final column you can see 'Mem Usage', how much memory that is being used by the program, which for 'mspaint.exe' is '1,132 K', this is 1,132 kilobytes (KB), which is around 1 megabyte (MB). This however is low intensive application, PC games on the other hand can take up much more, such as 256MBs for examle.
Putting this into perspective then, on a PC that has 512MB of memory, it can be said that you are using 256 / 512, or a half of the memory that is available. Windows is clever though, in that it creates a paging file on the hard drive to use virtual memory to help you run more programs then what your memory can take. However this results in slow performance as the CPU needs to access the hard drive for memory usage which is much slower than accessing RAM, therefore it not recommended to exceed the physical memory limit installed on your PC.
Using the 'Processes' tab you can quickly identify at any given time the programs that are using the most resources on your PC. This is a powerful tool as you can remove any programs that you do not use, which is taking up a lot of resources, by identifying the '.exe' of the program, a search into 'Google' can usually determine what the program is. Programs that take up a lot of CPU usage, causing the overall CPU level to be over 80% will slow down the performance of your PC, the same can be said for memory. Programs using a lot of memory to the amount of the physical memory installed, will stop you from being able to run other programs smoothly or at all.
You can also stop a program from running at any time and usually immediately by using the 'End Process' button on the highlighted process. This is useful if you want to free resources or unstuck your PC by stopping a rouge exe (usually a virus) so that you can save other programs before determining what the problem is.
Warning: Take care to identify what process you are ending, you do not want to end a process that protects your PC, such as anti-virus or firewall software in a bid to free resources, if you can avoid it. Also do not end a process that is being used by Windows in order to run your PC, most of which are marked as 'System' in the 'User Name' column, as this may crash your PC, or force an automatic system restart.
The 'msconfig' utility
For Windows OS: Vista/XP
The 'System Configuration' utility or 'msconfig.exe' can be a very powerful tool in improving your system performance if used correctly, especially on PCs that have a lot of unnecessary programs that load up on startup.
It is important to note that even if a program does not appear on the taskbar, or in the 'Quick Launch' bar, it still can be running in the background of your PC as a program or a service, consuming resources, memory and processing power. I will write a post to follow, on how to use the 'TaskBar' effectively, soon. This utility will help you monitor which programs are consuming the most resources on your PC.
To access the 'System Configuration' utility, click on 'Start' from the taskbar, and then 'Run', Vista users can use the 'Start Search' box if they haven't got the 'Run' command enabled on the 'Start Menu'.
Type "msconfig" into the 'Run' or 'Start Search' box. This will then bring up the 'System Configuration' utility
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