Saturday, April 18, 2009

The Importance of Computers in Businesses

Of all the disciplines, the business world is the most complicated. In fact, its principles and fundamental concepts of operation are applied or incorporated in other fields such as educational institutions, entertainment industry, technology and many more. Business, undeniably, is present in all aspects. Promoting and selling computers and other products of technology such as audio visual equipment is a form of business. This is just one among other connecting threads between business and computer technology.

The Business and the Technology where computers and audio visual equipment belong always go hand in hand. The business operations are not possible without computers, and computers are a product of business. Everything in the world involves business even if you see categories in several website directories or article submission sites in which technology is a separate entity from business.

In the past, businesses were merely done manually. With the use of a pen and a paper, everything could get done. Any business operation process could be accomplished with the help of mind, pen and paper. This process, of course, is tedious to do. One would be stressed in computing anything that involves numbers. Computations such as the number of sales, the expenses, the returns on investments, the salary for employees and many other activity that needs computations had to be recorded with a paper and pen. Even the simple list of employees and tasks had to be done manually. This way of recording or activity to run a business is risky. Papers where your sensitive and important data are written are prone to damage and loss. Though computers are also prone in damages and data loss, they are still more reliable compared to the mentioned way which is primitive. With the advent of computers, you don't have to exhaust your brain in computing or your hand in recording anything. Computers have made the business operations easily accomplished. In general, it has made our life easier.

Business operations today are not possible without computers. Anything in the world has to be done fast, especially the world of business. With the use of computers, one can add or subtract numbers for large amount of data. Even meeting with business partners can be done easily. The entrepreneurs have to options in discussing matters over the internet through instance messaging or through VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol). VoIP enables the two or more people who are in different places to talk live over the internet. They don't need to spend much money in discussing business with partners or clients. If you're one of those entrepreneurs, you don't have to travel or spend a lot for long distance phone call. Everything is made cheaper with computers (and internet). Saving your bucks is one among the benefits of computers, aside from saving your time and energy.

Computers is important not only in businesses but in all aspects of our life. Living in this era is not complete without this amazingly great machine. With computers, life is easy. Businesses are becoming more productive and easily put up and run. Our life is changed for better, and will never be the same again.

The Blue Screen of Death - Not Good News

Some kinds of computer errors will completely shut down your computer. An error of this kind is called a Stop Error for obvious reasons. There are a number of different kinds of Stop error and one quite well known and feared example is the blue screen of death or BSOD for short.

In the case of a BSOD error you will be shown an error code and a message on the blue screen. The error code and the message will help you find a starting point for correction of the problem. A BSOD problem can be the result of either a hardware or software malfunction. A hardware problem is however the most likely cause.

Examination of the BSOD will show the error description such as KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED along with a decimal number error code. The BSOD screen will tell you how to undertake some troubleshooting of the problem under the error details.

This troubleshooting process will tell you to

1. Make certain that any new hardware or software which you have recently installed has been properly installed.
2. Remove or disable the newly added software or hardware item to see if this resolves the problem.

This error description will show the eight digit decimal numbered error code. Four more numbers in parentheses will usually be present and give more information about the error.

Here are some ways you may go about repairing the BSOD errors:

A. The first thing you should do is to use your antivirus program to scan and remove any viruses which could be causing your computer problem.
B. Use a good antispyware application to scan the hard drive for malware. There are good free applications such as SPYBOT or ADAWARE which you can download on the internet to scan for and remove malware.
C. Check the memory sticks in your computer to ensure that your RAM is working properly. If you find any evidence of damage it will be necessary to remove and replace the damaged memory stick.
D. If the BSOD happens soon after you have installed new software try uninstalling the software to see if this resolves the error.
E. If you have just installed or updated a driver use the Device Manager which is installed in your computer to uninstall or reinstall the driver and the update.

Finally if none of the above have corrected the problem there is a good probability that the crash has been caused by a corrupt registry.

The registry is a huge databank which contains all the files used by the operating system to run the computer. Over some time as the computer is used many fragments of data can accumulate in your registry causing it to bcome corrupted. The operating system then has difficulty in accessing the data it requires to run the machine.

As a result the computer runs slow and you should use one of the top registry cleaners to fix registry problems. There are a number of Windows XP registry cleaners available for download from the internet.

A good windows reg cleaner will first offer you a free scan to determine whether or not you actually need to fix registry problems.You can check the results of this absolutely free scan and decide whether or not you want to do registry repair. Actually it is highly advisable to use the Windows registry repair software to do the job for you. If you attempt it manually and remove just one essential entry by mistake you may disable your computer.

A good PC registry repair application will do the job quickly and easily. This is good PC registry repair. We tested several of the popular Windows XP registry cleaners and found that whilst they will all do the job some are much better than others. We found one in particular which provided superior results.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Read Up on AMD Athlon Processors and Other Processors So You Will Know Exactly What You Are Getting

If there is one thing that you should know whenever you have to buy a computer or a laptop, it is the specifications of what you are buying. This is important so you will know exactly what you are getting. However, it is more important if you know exactly what specifications you should be getting. Knowing the specifications of what you are buying is different from knowing the specifications of the computer you should be getting.

It will ultimately depend on your needs. If you are a person who is into games, it is best if you know what kind of computer processor, media card and the likes. Check out the reviews. Do a little research and you will find out that sometimes what you are looking for are AMD Athlon Processors after all. If you are going to use your computer for surfing the World Wide Web and making emails, then you would not need such high-end specifications.

The technique here is to window shop for computers. Look at different kinds and consider your options. Of course, we all want to have the most high-end, the newest computer released at the time but money is a major consideration. You can always make your own computer. You can modify the computer parts. You can choose to buy the high-end computer parts that will be most important to you and choose the lesser-end of those that would not matter to you.

Making your own computer is cost-effective if you know how. If you don't, just buy one. Just the same you will need to read up on the advantages and disadvantages of each part and each maker. Start with the computer processors. Read up on AMD Athlon processors and Intel processors. You will not regret it.

Get Rid of Adware and Spyware

If you have been experiencing the frustration of having a computer full of adware and spyware then you are probably on the search for a way to get rid of the adware and spyware. There is software that you can get to fight them but these viruses just keep getting more and more advanced with each passing year.

The main type of adware that we deal with is the dreaded pop-ups. When your computer is infected with some of this malicious code you may become bombarded by pop-up ads that never seem to go away. While adware started out as a legitimate marketing method, abusers got a hold of the system and turned into the annoying monster that we know today.

Spyware on the other hand is not always as obvious and therefore can actually be more dangerous. It gets the name spyware because it does not want to be found. It will hide in your system and monitor what you do online. Some of these programs will even record your keystrokes. This is really scary stuff because if you are infected with spyware your credit card and other personal information may be stolen.

Although spyware usually runs quietly, there are still ways that you can discover it on your system if you are looking closely. If you notice your computer doing anything out of the normal it may be a sign that your system has been infected. Your computer speed may have slowed down or maybe some programs are not working anymore. These and tons of other things are all signs that you may have adware and or spyware.

There are a ton of adware and spyware removal programs on the Internet that you can download. These programs get rid of adware and spyware by identifying them and then moving them into quarantine. A good program will update itself regularly as new versions of adware and spyware hit the web. This will assure that after you get rid of the adware and spyware, you won't have to worry about them coming back again even as new versions are released.

Remove Adware and Spyware

Removing adware and spyware these days can be as simple as finding a good software program. Once you have found a good software program that you want to use, you simply download it, install it and then run it. Once the program begins it will hunt down any adware and spyware that you may have on your system. Once it finds some, it will quarantine it.

The huge amounts of adware and spyware that is out there infecting peoples computers has lead to this new industry of removal programs. As long as there is adware and spyware, there will be programs to help combat the problem.

But What Is Spyware?

Simple put, spyware is a type of program that installs itself on your computer, usually when you download a file from the Internet, with the sole intention to spy on you. These nasty programs can rapidly spread through your PC operating system, causing some serious damage. It may record personal information about you like your credit card number, websites you visit and so on.

As the spyware infection spreads, it installs other bad components that may have a negative affect on your computers performance. You may start to experience undesired CPU usage and inappropriate disk usage. These types of problems will result in your computer becoming slower and crashing more often. Some spyware programs even have the ability to turn off your firewall and anti-spyware removal programs so that you can't fight back easily.

Sometimes the problem is staring you right in the face and you can tell that you have been infected. Other times however, it can be quite an effective little spy, lurking on your PC for months.

While all computers can be attacked by adware and spyware, the most common problems are with the Microsoft Windows computers. This is due to the fact that it is the most popular operating system therefore it is more appealing to these attacks.

It is sad and very unfortunate that we have had this adware and spyware problem explode onto our World Wide Web. Even more sad is the fact that there is not much we can do about it now.

The best thing that one can do is to protect themselves by using a spyware removal program and running regular scans on your computer for infections. Also make sure that you have your firewall turned on and at the first sign of an infection, don't hesitate, remove that adware and spyware immediately.

2 Ways to Clean Your Computer's Registry

Over time your computer will lose a little of its luster from redundant erroneous files, from installing/uninstalling software, and inappropriate shut downs etc... These actions will eventually hamper you computer's performance, which most of the times will cause people to make hasty decisions such as running out and purchasing new computers.

I can understand why, because most people aren't techies and don't desire to be, so they simply don't know anything else to do but purchase a new computer.

There are two ways that you can fix these problems: Manually & Registry Cleaner Software

Manually

You can manually clean your computers registry by using Windows Registry Editor, but I will warn against this if you're inexperienced. Please do not go experimenting with your registry trust me on this.

But, if you are experienced or just insist on doing it manually yourself create a backup of your entire registry and delete anything that you determined is unnecessary.

- On your desktop, click the Start button on the left bottom corner
- Click Run
- In this window type regedit
- Click OK At the top of the window
- Click File
- Go down to Export Type a name for the backup file, and click Save

Once you've backed up all your files you can proceed to editing or changing your registry. You can then start to make the necessary changes of a particular file or folder by clicking the expandable boxes on the left hand side. One of the main areas for manually editing or changing your registry is the (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) folder; this is where changes to your computer's hardware and software are made.

Again, I highly advised against manually cleaning your own registry unless you're experienced at doing so.

The second method and highly preferred method is to purchase a registry cleaner software.

Registry Cleaner Software

This method is suited for the novice or anyone that's not a techie...I prefer this method, with just a click of the mouse you can simply walk away and allow the software to do the work for you. Using a registry cleaner software simplifies the process for you. Once you install it, you can even set it up to automatically run scans on you machine periodically. So, you can see why I prefer this method, its safe and it's simple. Before you go and purchase a registry cleaner software make sure that you do a thorough research before deciding. One of the better ways to do this is to visit a few different registry review sites.

How to Diagnose PC Damage

Before shelling out your hard-earned money to have your PC repaired, consider investing your time and effort in diagnosing the damage yourself. Who knows? It might turn out to be a glitch you could easily resolve.

Common PC Startup Problems
Many PC troubles begin when you've just booted your PC. Here are a few similar situations and what you can do about it.

No Response
If you've turned your PC on and there is no audio or light response from it, the problem could lie in your motherboard, power supply, or the CPU itself.

Beeping, Et Al
Don't be alarmed if you hear the ever notorious - and threatening - beeping of your PC upon booting it. This could just mean there's a bit of error with regard your motherboard, memory, video card, or even your keyboard. If you wish for further understanding, there are beep codes you can find online to give you a more in-depth analysis behind each kind of beep.

As for all other types of noise, screeches and so forth, this could be due to errors with your floppy drive, hard disk, CD or DVD-ROM, or even your CPU, internal or case fans, or power supply.

Blank Screen
Check the video card as well as its connection. If not that, then it could be your monitor having problems.

OS Loading Problems
If your PC freezes right before your OS loads, this may be due to errors in your CPU, motherboard, hard disk, or memory. On the other hand, if the incident occurred while your PC is in the process of loading its OS, a software problem may be the cause of it. Have you recently installed a new program? If so, there may be compatibility issues or there were some missteps during the installation process.

Automatic Shut-Off
Did your PC shut off by itself? Such response may be due to external or internal damage. Let's start with what can be seen right away; how regularly do you clean your CPU?
Are you aware that dust accumulation can inflict severe damage on your PC? As such, it's important that you not only clean your PC in and out, but you should do so properly.

Are all fans working? Too much heat within your CPU could cause operational difficulties or, in your case, complete shutdowns. How about the power supply? Is it still working? Last but not the least, check the power features in the Control Panel as well as in your BIOS.

If your diagnosis still hasn't revealed any concrete problem with your PC, that's the only time you should consult a professional!

How to Speed Up My Computer, Tips and Tricks to To Speed Up Your Computer Performance

Over time all the computers tends to slow down and this leads us to buy new hardware equipments to maintain the current speed flow and performance of the machine. These upgrades over time can turn to be very expensive and this is why I want to share with you guys some of ways that you can speed up your computer performance with a fractions of the price.

So are you ready?

First of all let me tell you why your computer is slowing down, I think this very important to know the reason behind the slow downs. You see over time your machine gets saturated with useless data, what I mean is that your computer is getting cluttered with garbage.

What do I mean by garbage?

Well, every time you install and uninstall any programs there will be always files left behind, mainly registry files. And these files will get cluttered over time. This is the main cause of the problem so to fix it you must remove the entire "garbage" registry left over files.

To do that you must use a Registry Cleaner software program, these kinds of programs will search and remove all the invalid, corrupted and left over registry files.

For more information about registry cleaners I strongly suggest visiting the link below.

Another way to speed up your machine is to remove the startup programs that you do not use often. To do this just go to home -> run and type "msconfig" and under the startup tab uncheck all the startup programs that you do not use often (restarting system may be required). By removing these startup programs you can free your computers memory by 30%.

A good way to use computer memory is to perform a disk defragmenter, this will organise your computer files and folder making it very easy to the machine to find the proper information. By doing this you will increase your computer speed by 20%.

Smit Chacha is a computer expert with over 8 years in the industry. He has an intimate knowledge of the windows registry and various register repair software.

After testing some of the top registry cleaners on the marker he has created a comprehensive review site that details his findings. Here is the website best registry cleaner to read his professional report.

What Are the Parts of a Motherboard?

The motherboard or PCB (Primary Circuit Board) is responsible for connecting all computer devices to the microprocessor. It supplies devices with power and allows the computer to react with them, Devices that can be used by connecting to the motherboard are: Storage devices, sound cards, graphic cards and hard disks.

Devices or components that are needed to make the computer work as it should, are inbuilt within the motherboard or can be connected to it using a socket or port. Listed below are sockets and ports that are available on the motherboard for connecting devices and , what that they are capable of doing.

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slot: Supports peripherals like sound cards, DVD decoders, and graphic accelerators with 32 bits at 33Mhz capabilities. There are usually anywhere from 1 to 6 PCI slots available on the motherboard.

AGP (Accelerated Graphic Port): This provides fast bus speed connectivity along with fast access to the main memory. It is designed for video cards that demand higher bandwidth.

Chipset-North Bridge: An integrated circuit that has special duties.

CPU (Central Processing Unit) socket: A socket specifically for connecting your computer processor.

DIMM (Double Inline Memory Module) slots, SIMM (Single Inline Memory Module) and RIMM: Different types of memory (RAM) can be installed into these slots.

Motherboard Battery: A battery compartment, which stores the battery used for storing data such as system date and time, when you shut down your system.

IDE Connector: Responsible for connecting the IDE cord used for hard disks, CD drives, and DVD drives.

Firewire header (IEEE 1394): A serial bus used to exchange digital and audio data with high performance abilities.

The following listed items are parts that are built within the motherboard with specific connective uses such as keyboards, mouse, and printers.

PS/2 Connectors: Each motherboard usually has 2 PS/2 connectors for the keyboard and the mouse.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) port: There are usually a couple of these ports located on each motherboard used for connecting pen drives and external hard drives, like Ipods or Mp3 players.

Parallel or (LPT) port: The place used to connect scanners and printers.

Game Port: The port to connect all gaming devices for example, a joystick.

Sound Card Connectors: Plug in your microphone or speakers here.

Display Connector: Connecting your monitor to the motherboard.

COM (Communication) port: The port designed to connect your mouse and modem.

Now that you know all the parts and pieces that make up your motherboard, hooking up that new computer system may not be so frustrating. Here are some companies that manufacturer motherboards: Tyan, ASUS, Super Micro, Intel, Iwill, Diamond, First International Computer, Elite Group Computer Systems, American Megatrends, and EFA.

RAM Explained

FIRST THE SIMPLE EXPLANATION:

Random Access memory or RAM is small plug in cards that store all your computer's programs and data while the computer is running. As soon as you switch your computer off, this memory clears. So anything in RAM must be saved to the computer's hard drive if you want to keep it.

RAM is measured in Megabytes or Gigabytes. One byte is the amount of memory you need to store one character of text, like an "A" for example. So one megabyte can store about one million characters, which is roughly the amount in a best seller novel of 300 pages. Thus a gigabyte, which is 1,000 megabytes, will store around 1,000 of these books - a small library!

When you open a program on your computer, the requested program is copied from the hard drive and put into the RAM. If you open a second program, this too is loaded into the RAM. If your RAM gets full, then the computer starts a process called page swopping, where it frantically swops bits of data between the RAM and the hard drive to get the space in the RAM that it needs. This seriously slows down your computer, and so it is always best to have as much RAM as you can afford to prevent this happening.

Without RAM, your computer will not come on or display anything. Only the cooling fans will run. So it's a really important part of the computer.

NOW FOR THE TECH HEADS

RAM is a vast array of electronic switches, each one being either "on" or "off" which is equivalent to a logic 0 or a logic 1, and these switches are called bits. There are 8 bits in a byte. So one megabyte of RAM is 8,388,608 of these switches. (8 x 2 exp 20) Note that a megabyte is not a million bytes, but 2 to the power of 20, which is 1,048,576 bytes, as computers work on the binary system.

The plug in RAM cards consist of LSI ICs, that is: large scale integration Integrated circuits, this in order to squash many millions of circuits and components onto a single piece of silicone. The RAM available at the moment is normally DDR3 DRAM, which stands for Double Data Rate 3 - Dynamic Random Access memory. Quite a mouthful. Double Data Rate means that the RAM does 2 operations for every pulse of the memory bus, so it will operate twice as fast as standard RAM.

What is Hard Drive Fragmentation and Defragmentation?

A fragment is a piece. If you drop a vase on a concrete floor, you get fragmentation of the vase. Lots of little pieces. Which is pretty much what your data looks like on your hard drive after you've been using it for a few months. Ever try to stick all the little pieces of a smashed vase together again? Well, that's kinda what your computer has to do to get that file that you just tried to open. It's first got to find all those little pieces and stick them all together again, and then present this stuck together file to you.

AND IF YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS BAD...

Now here's the part where it gets worse. When you are finished with the file, and you save it, your computer breaks it up again into all these little pieces, plus some more little pieces that you just added with your edit, and it has to find all the places where it got the little pieces from in the first place, and put them back there. And you wondered why your computer was slow!

HAVE MERCY ON YOUR POOR PC.

When we defragment our hard drive, we are giving the computer a chance to find all the little pieces of all the files, and enabling it to stick all these pieces together and keep them together by saving this whole file in one place on the hard drive. So when you request a file or document, the computer only has to search for one thing, which it joyfully finds and presents it to you on your screen in a very short time.

GIVE YOUR HARD DRIVE SOME AIR

To allow your computer to properly defragment your drive, you need to have a little spare space. So if your hard drive is really full, like more than 80%, it might be a good time to add an additional hard drive. You can see how full your hard drive is by holding down the Windows key and pressing E, then right clicking on the drive's name (eg: DRIVE (C:) ) and then clicking Properties in the popup menu.

FOR THE TECH HEADS.

Technically, what happens during defragmentation is that the pieces of data that make up a file or directory are moved around the hard drive cylinders, sectors and platters to form contiguous blocks of data, so that the hard drive heads do not have to seek out numerous small blocks of data, but instead only have to seek out a few large blocks, thereby reducing seek time and increasing data throughput.

So make life easier for your hard working computer, and it should repay you with faster file retrieval, and a longer, trouble free life.

How to Select the Best Motherboard For Your Computer

While it's relatively easy with today's technology to build your own computer; selecting the best motherboard is critical to building the computer that best fits your own unique needs.

Building your own computer can mean saving money and also building a custom specified system - it means getting exactly what you want. All computer components are important (the computer can't run without them) but the motherboard is a very important part of your computer system and you need to have a clear understanding of what you want, why you want it, and how what you've selected affects the operation of the computer once built. You need to know how to select the best motherboard for your computer. All components in your computer system connect to the motherboard; it is the key component and therefore you need to understand it. For the purposes of this article, we'll assume that you are building your own computer rather than replacing the motherboard in an existing computer system. But in either case, learning what to look for and how the motherboard affects the performance of your computer is important.

First, consider which CPU you will be using. For example, Intel and AMD CPUs both use different motherboards because each uses a different socket type. Then, you also need to understand the processor speed; your motherboard needs to support the selected CPU. With the rapid technology changes in today's environment, there are a wide variety of socket types in use. Processors used to have the same number of pins, with technology driving fast changes, the motherboards sockets need more pins to provide more power and support new features. New processors are starting to put the pins on the socket instead of the CPU, allowing for easier set-up. You must match the right CPU (and socket type) to the right motherboard. The CPU needs the socket to communicate with motherboard components through the chipset.

The CPU drives the decision on which chipset to buy and use. A fast chipset allows efficient data transfers and power management; the chipset controls all the communication between CPU, the memory, and the local bus. There are two major parts of the chipset: the northbridge and the southbridge. The CPU communicates through the northbridge with the system RAM (the AGP graphics card) or the PCI-E (graphics card). The CPU also uses the northbridge to communicate with the southbridge. The northbridge is closer to the CPU and faster; the southbridge is further from the CPU and slower. The communications to USB ports, PCI slots, SATA connections, and other components is handled by the southbridge.

The bus is a circuit through which data is transmitted; it connects parts of the motherboard. Bus size is important because size, or width, determines how much data can be transmitted. Bus speed, measured in MHz, is relevant when selecting a motherboard. Speed determines the components communication speed and data transfer; therefore a fast bus speed allows fast data transfer and faster running applications.

The circuit connecting the CPU to the northbridge is the Front Side Bus (FSB). The top end of FSB speed is 1666 MHz - the higher, the faster and, typically, the more expensive. Speed is evolving and being upgraded with new technology, not just because faster is better but to synchronize with demand for speed from upgraded and new applications. As with most equipment and technology, the slowest component will be a speed bottleneck for the whole operating system - with a slow FSB speed, your computer will also operate at slow speed.

When selecting your motherboard you need to consider memory and how much memory you want for your computer system. Unless you are a gamer, or do a lot of graphics or video work, 2 GB of RAM should be enough. Most motherboards today come with at least two memory slots, and many come with four. To ensure you have enough expandable memory capacity for the future (even if you start with 2 GB of RAM), buy a motherboard with 4 slots.

Other considerations when selecting the motherboard for your computer build are the peripherals, such as keyboard, mouse, printer, flash drive, external drive and digital camera. If you plan on adding additional cards (such as graphics card, wireless network card, sound card), you will need enough PCI slots to handle the peripherals. Most motherboards have four USB slots and two more that connect to the USB ports on the case. You also need to consider the battery (you'll likely need to change the battery in your motherboard every four to 5 years - if you keep your computer that long) and the preloaded BIOS (which boots up your computer).

People who have not yet built their own computers are often concerned that they will not be able to build the system they want, accurately, efficiently and cost effectively. However, the best way to learn, to save money, and to get a custom built system, is to just build it!

To find out more information on how to select the best motherboard for your computer build, visit best motherboard for more information.

Kris Bovay is owner of Voice, the business and marketing services company with a difference and is a publisher of a small business website. She has 25 years experience in leading small, medium and large business.
Christian Bovay is an electronics technician with more than 30 years experience in the industry. He learned about computers and technology initially in the Canadian military, and subsequently, with several telecommunications companies.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Finding the Best Registry Cleaner

Windows as a personal computer (PC) operating system can be a wondrous thing. In fact, it makes it extremely easy for even the most inexperienced user to drive a computer like an F1 race car. But it can suffer issues in the registry, which is why finding the best registry cleaner can be so important.

Think of the registry, which is found in Windows-based PCs, as a kind of script repository. Scripts are a vital thing in Windows, so it's not like they're unneeded. They help the software they belong to run efficiently, for starters. But there's a downside to scripts, unfortunately.

These scripts, sometimes tagged with the abbreviation "dll" (small letters) may sometimes not even really have a thing to do in Windows once their old programs are uninstalled. If this uninstallation was done incorrectly or incompletely (which is more likely the case), certain scripts which controlled the software's start-up activities are left behind, or orphaned.

The problem is these scripts still run, and they can slow down page loading and other Windows activities. It can get so serious, in fact, that Windows may freeze up entirely. And that's why it's vital that the user find the best registry cleaner possible. So, search for one that gets rid of dlls or scripts and restores Windows' former speed back to what it once was.

If the best registry cleaner is used against this problem, it won't have to be the case that a user will need to suffer with poor computer performance. This may help to prevent slowdowns and freeze-ups, in fact. Think of using this cleaner as similar to what you have to do when it's time for the car to go in for a scheduled maintenance check or, better yet, tune-up. It'll optimize Windows operations, and that's not a bad thing.

Understanding the Internet, HTTP, HTTPS and WWW

Internet was first built by the American defense to communicate. But in the 1960 to 1970 internet is going to be open in public. Internet is the global interconnecting network to exchange information among the computers. A computer that connects to the internet can access information from a large collection of offered servers and other computers by moving information from them to the computer's local memory. The globalization of the internet has succeeded faster than anyone could have imagined. The manner in which social, commercial, political and personal interactions occur is rapidly changing to keep up with the evolution of this global network. Internet plays an increasing role in the success in every step of our life.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a protocol for distributed, manual hypermedia information system. In the internet the use of HTTP is a retrieving system of inter-linked resources led to the establishment of the World Wide Web. The development of this protocol was initially coordinated by the WWW Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force. HTTP can simply be defined as a request and response standard of a client and a server. Here client is defined as the end user and the server is defined as the web site.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a combination of Hypertext Transfer Protocol and network security protocol. HTTP operates at the higher layer of the TCP/IP model. The security protocol operates at the lower sub layer. It encrypts the HTTP message to transmit and decrypts a message when arrival.

The 'World Wide Web' or 'WWW' means simply as the 'Web surfing' or in short 'the Web'. It is a very large set of interlinked hypertext documents which are accessed through internet. The web pages that contain text, images and videos are navigated using hyperlink.


How to Restore Browsing History

If you work on a computer then you have most certainly dealt with several unfortunate events and occasions, such as losing your browsing history without expecting it or even wanting it. Internet Explorer builds up the history of the websites you have most recently visited. Once in a while it clears out the browsing history, either due to scheduled maintenance or due to a manual command. What happens though if you accidentally cleared the history out without wanting to? Is there any chance to undelete it? As always there are numerous ways to do things when it comes to Windows, however you can find here how to restore browsing history in a few steps.

The easiest way to do it is to use the Restore feature. Every now and then Windows take some sort of snapshot of the pc, which are also known as restore points. They help the user set the system back if something goes wrong with an installation or configuration, or if he accidentally erases something from the system. If you have a comprehensive amount of restore points in your system you can simply run Windows restore and 'return' to the version of system that was running before clearing out the history. Doing this you will get your IE browsing history back within seconds.

If you have changed any settings then you might have prevented the restore points from detecting the changes in your system. In this case you need to locate the index.dat files in your system. These are small files used by Internet Explorer so as to track down your browsing history.

If you try to open these files in Notepad you will see the websites you visited; or you can simply download software that reads index.dat files and have your browsing history back in no time.

Computer Hardware Guide

Does the technical name of different component of a computer, such as RAM, processor, scares you off?

In this article, we will be covering most of the hardware in regardless of the form size (physical size of the computer casing)

Essential Computer Hardware consists of

Mainboard

CPU

RAM

Hard Disk Drive

Graphic Card

Power Supply / Casing

Keyboard / Mouse

Monitor

DVD Writer

Mainboard (Motherboard)

This is the biggest piece of hardware in the system. This is where various other essential components connect onto it, such as CPU, Ram, Hard Disk drive, etc, to it. Modern mid-range mainboard usually comes with add-on component such LAN port, sound card and graphics card.

As other hardware connects to the mainboard, it is important to ensure that the mainboard purchased is of high caliber and has at least the add-on component as stated in the paragraph above.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

This is one of the computer hardware that determines the speed of the whole system. The other determining hardware are the RAM and Hard Disk Drive. Single Core CPUs are almost obsolete and are much slower compared to their Dual Core / Quad Core counterparts.

Usually a numeric figure is stated and that is the clock frequency, commonly known as the speed of the CPU. Usually the higher the clock frequency, the faster your data can be processed.

Ram

Known as Random Access Memory, are memory chips where data are temporary stored. By storing the data on RAMs, the CPU is able to process the data in a shorter period which leads faster execution of the instructions and tasks assigned to the computer.

Usually a numeric figure (in Gb) is stated and that is the physical size of data the RAM is able to store.

Hard Disk Drive

This computer hardware keeps all data permanently, unlike the RAM which will erase data if the computer is shut down. Comes in sizes of 2.5” (for laptop) and 3.5” (for Desktop)

Usually a numeric figure (in Gb) is stated and comes in various capacity. A rough calculation Assuming a 4 min long music song is stored in mp3 format and takes up 4mb worth of space in the hard disk. 160Gb will be able to store around 40,000 songs!

Graphic Card

As stated, this card is initially responsible for displaying images onto the monitor. However, due to the high rendering first-person-shooter games being produced, gamers will demand their graphics card to be better than the CPU. This is due to the fact that the graphic card will handle all taxing gaming images which the CPU was unable to process. To meet up the demands, even graphics cards are going dual core!

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

The life of the computer! This computer hardware sends power to various devices, such as the mainboard, hard disk drives, etc.

This is often the most overlooked hardware and is frequently compromised due to budget constraints. However, by cutting down on getting a good PSU, risks such as electric shock and under-current may occurs which could instantly destroy the mainboard and other hardware by providing the wrong current or voltage!!

Computer Casing / Chasis

Computer case is the tough armor to protect the dedicated various computer hardware.

Casing are important as they ventilate and regulate air flow to prevent overheating of the essential computer hardware.

Optical Drives

Commonly known as CD-ROM / DVD-ROM or DVD Writers, this allows reading of various CDs/DVDs. ROM hardware are only able to read from CD / DVD, while DVD Writers enables writing (copying of data) to the discs.

The latest technology for Optical Drive is currently Blu-Ray ROM will allows reading of Blu-ray disc. Due to the high cost, it is not widely included in systems.

Monitor

Is a visual display unit that shows images generated by the graphic card. CRT monitors that are working today are using older technology which consumes more power. Mainstream monitor manufactured are now mostly LCD due to their compact size and cheaper cost to manufacture.

LCD monitors come in various sizes, ranging from a minimum of 15” to up to 70”!

Keyboard and Mouse

Is the hardware to input data and commands into the computer.

I hope that the above computer guide will assist you in having a further understanding of computer hardware.

7 Smart Ways to Choose the Right Printer By Pinky Mcbanon Platinum Quality Author

Printers are like computers and other technology. Like other technologies they also evolved almost everyday into something bigger and better. Newer versions and models are coming out. There are many types of printer can now be found. You have to choose the right printer for you. There are a lot of options and types of printers on the market today. The two major types of printers on the market are ink jet which is primarily used in homes and laser printers mainly used in business. The types of printers are endless and you have to choose the perfect one for your use.

Ink printers are generally used in home basis. Laser printers are use in office or business purpose. The 7 smart ways to choose the right printer are describing below:

1) If you want to use the printer for only printing text then you has to need high speed of the printer. If you are going to use it for photographs then you should choose a printer specifically for photographs and those kinds of printers have a high price.

2) You should also be considering what the costs of replacement cartridges are. Unfortunately, ink cartridges are pretty expensive. While ink jet printers are overall cheap when you first purchase it.

3) You may want to choose a speedy printer if you intend to use it on large amount of printouts.

4) Printers have many types. Each type has their own benefits and weakness, as most things in the world do.

5) Easy to control the printer. That means the printer must have easy control system and you have to make sure that the options are satisfy you requirements.

6) You have to make sure amount of space it takes up on desk or stand and what you want. If you want to use the printer for mobile use you have to buy a less weight printer.

7) You have to choose what printer you need wireless or hard wires. If the printer makes too much noisy then you should avoid the printer to buy.

Ms. Pinky is a Computer Support Specialist for more than 25 years. Has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering, MS Research work in Systems Engineering.

What You Can Do to Keep Unwanted Adult Content Online From Affecting Your Life

Today there are over 80,000,000 web pages with containing pornography or other unwanted adult content. This is a very conservative number and grows daily. This overwhelming onslaught of undesirable images impacts everyone, everywhere.

At home 46% of families say that pornography is a problem. Nine out of ten children between the ages of eight and sixteen have been exposed to online pornography (and the vast majority of these exposures came accidentally while the child was browsing the internet for information regarding a homework assignment.)

In the workplace, in the United States alone, there are over 15,000 cases annually of sexual harassment. Somewhere between 40% and 70% of women and 10% and 20% of men have been harassed. Many of these cases came from exposure to pornography which was either sent to them at work, or which they were exposed to by a co-worker. Employers can be legally responsible for sexual harassment against their employees and liable to them for damages.

Regardless of whether the problems are home or in the workplace, they can and should be dealt with...and there are effective ways to deal with this issue.

First, there must be a frank discussion and a clear understanding of what is acceptable for online viewing. At work, there should be a written policy as to what may or may not be viewed and/or distributed. At home, parents should discuss what to do when something objectionable pops up and how to avoid unwanted sites (eg. Never simply open a website that comes to you unsolicited from someone you do not know.).

Second, to the greatest extent possible, physical control over computers should be exercised. This is more difficult in the workplace. At home, computers should be in public areas in order to discourage inappropriate use.

Finally, appropriate technology should be applied in order to simply prevent the problem. The first line of defense, in all cases, must be the use of products which use "black lists" and "white lists" to screen site names and URLs. Black listed sites will never appear. Many products use this approach. It is a necessary but insufficient solution to the problem. It is necessary because the sheer volume sites makes it virtually impossible to check every site every time for unwanted adult content. This black list and white approach quickly reduces the number of sites that truly need to be screened. However, due to the very rapid proliferation of undesirable sites, these lists are always out of date.

The second line of technical defense comes through the use of products which actually analyze images on the sites. There are two approaches to this type of analysis. The first, and weakest, most cumbersome, are PC or laptop based products which try simply to estimate the amount of skintone based on rudimentary color analysis. These are slow and not terribly accurate. They are superior to the products which simply block all images...but only by a small margin.

The state of the art consists of products which use sophisticated neural analysis algorithms running on large computers in the Internet cloud to provide very fast and very accurate rankings of sites and images before they reach your computer. These products are available and typically do rely on the black lists and white lists as screening mechanisms, so that only the truly questionable sites and images are analyzed.

Combining policy, physical control and state of the art technology can go a long way in substantially reducing unwanted adult content in your life.

Myril Shaw is General Manager for Online Chaperone, one of the leading edge technology companies spearheading the effort to take back the Internet. Online Chaperone (http://www.onlinechaperone.com/) believes that everyone should be free to have enjoyable, productive experiences while browsing the net, without the concerns that today's online pornographers are causing.

Online Chaperone uses sophisticated neural technologies and a Bayesian, self-learning analytic engine to detect pornographic and other images.

Online Chaperone provides the G-Rated internet one image at a time.

What You Should Know Before Buying Computer Equipment

There are many factors to consider when deciding on which computer equipment to buy. The massive amount of choices can seem overwhelming. This guide can help you compare computer equipment features, and help you to examine and sift through the basic items before you buy a new computer.

If it is a desktop PC, laptop, discount/surplus computer, a refurbished computer or a computer accessory, this quick guide will help you to get the most for your money.

With computer equipment today almost any of them will adequately handle what most people need to buy a new computer for; word processing, basic office, internet surfing and email. Which you can buy for about $1000. or less! But if you are into digital videos, photo editing, music, or manage a large database you will need more than the basic Desktop PC or Laptop. This higher end computer will cost you around $1500-$2000.

(CPU) Processors:
There is always a lot of change in the computer market, but no matter what the upgrades there is always two basic choices to be made when purchasing computer equipment:
1) brand 2) speed. To buy a new computer that handles standard office and Internet tasks any processor will work.

Need more 'power' in your computer equipment? Then the Intel Pentium4 or the AMD Athlon XP (great for graphics and photos which use a lot of memory space) are for you.

If you buy a new computer one or two levels from the top you will only lose about five percent per tier performance but you can save a couple hundred dollars!

(RAM) Memory:
Memory is very important because optimum running of your computer equipment is dependent on enough RAM. The minimum amount should be 256MB, for better performance you should get 512MB. If you can afford to buy a new computer with more, you should. It's worth it because you can keep more applications open and it will easily handle memory hogs like Photoshop and music applications!

Monitors:
When buying computer equipment look for a monitor that is at least 17" with a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. A Desktop PC with a 19-inch monitor gives you 20 % more screen area. If you can spend $300-$450 on a monitor when you buy a new computer you might want to get a 15" LCD because it has the same viewable area as the 17" CRT and takes up much less space.

Hard Drives (storage):
Most hard drives sold today will provide more than enough storage. The basic computer equipment comes with 40GB or larger, which is plenty for most tasks. But for working with graphics, video, music, or large databases 80GB should be the minimum you settle for. 7200-rpm drives give better performance. But for the best performance get a computer with 8MB of cache.

Warranty and Tech Support:
A one-year warranty on most computer equipment is enough, because most problems seem to happen in the first year. If you want you can get an extended two to three year warranty for around $150. to $200. If you buy a Dell you can get priority call routing to tech support for a year for only $39.

Why Hide Your IP Address?

Hiding your IP address is the best way for surfing the net anonymously. IP address is the Internet protocol address. This is the unique address of a computer on the Internet. The IP address consists of four numbers divided by periods. These numbers indicate the domain, the subnetwork, the network and the host computer. Each IP address mostly has an equivalent domain name address, spelled with four letters. It is very important to hide your IP address online. Hiding your IP address online ensures that your personal information is not leaked out to the outsiders.

By installing software in your PC, you can hide your IP address. Anonymous surfing of the web will enable you to safeguard your Internet privacy. There is nothing illegal in hiding your IP address, for the proper reasons. If you have any doubt regarding this you can always consult your legal advisor. The legal advisor can guide you about the matter.

An IP address changer can help you change your IP address when you are surfing online. The tools of IP address changer will let you change your IP address anytime by routing your Internet traffic through an overseas server. The tool has drop down box that enables the user to choose an IP address from one of the countries mentioned in the box. Hiding your IP address is the best option to protect your self from any kind of fraud.

Hiding your IP address also enables you to protect your computer from spyware. Spyware is the software that monitors the activities of the user of a computer. Some webmasters and software producers offer free downloads for your computer. Most of the free downloads are embedded with spyware. After you complete the download, the spyware gets installed in your computer and your activities can be monitored.

Hiding your IP address also gives you freedom from the constantly bombarding pop up ads in your computer. Whenever you enter a website, you will be flooded by the pop up ads. Constant flooding of the pop up ads in the computer can be very irritating and disturbing for the user. The efficiency of the computer also gets diminished due to this. Your computer can stop functioning when you have an urgent piece of work to do. Hiding your IP address will protect you from such situation.

The main advantage of hiding your IP address is that you are protected from any website that wants to monitor your online habits and activities. Hiding the IP address also makes sure that you do not receive any junk or bulk emails in your inbox. Good software for hiding your IP address will keep your computer safe from the hackers. If the software has the ability to support frequent IP address change, the chances of protecting your privacy increases.

You can also use the web-based email to send anonymous email to people. This can sometimes be necessary for your work. Your IP address is meant for your personal use and nobody has the right to misuse this without your permission.