Computer Works | Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting

What Is a Computer Virus And What Does it do?

Posted in | at 03:51

Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation.
A virus might corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your email program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk.
Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in email messages or instant messaging messages. That is why it is essential that you never open email attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it.
So in general, what is a computer Virus? - A computer virus is a program or code intentionally created to harm or to alter normal operations of a computer.

How Do I know That I have Cought a Virus? What are the Symptoms of an Infected Computer??

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Disk defragmentation

Posted in | at 23:40

Disk defragmentation describes the process of consolidating fragmented files on your computer's hard disk.

Fragmentation happens to a hard disk over time as you save, change, or delete files. The changes that you save to a file are often stored at a location on the hard disk that's different from the original file. Additional changes are saved to even more locations. Over time, both the file and the hard disk itself become fragmented, and your computer slows down as it has to look in many different places to open a file.

Disk Defragmenter is a tool that rearranges the data on your hard disk and reunites fragmented files so your computer can run more efficiently. In this version of Windows, Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule so you don't have to remember to run it, although you can still run it manually or change the schedule it uses.

You can access Disk Defragmenter several different ways. One way is to click on the START button, then ALL PROGRAMS, then ACCESSORIES, then SYSTEM TOOLS, and then click on Disk Defragmenter.

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Disk Cleanup

Posted in | at 23:39

Running disk cleanup from accessories

Due to daily access of files, temporary files needed by the running processes stored in the PC accumulate and consume lots of memory, It is advisable to clean up your disks to free memory on your hard drive. In Microsoft windows, there is an utility that you can use for this.

Go to start with your mouse (You can also do this by pressing the windows key on your keyboard or press Ctrl+Esc key.
Go to all Programs
Go to Accessories
Go to System Tools
Select Disk cleanup

When disk cleanup starts select what disk you want to clean, default is disk C, then choose what files to delete then say OK and that's it.

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Disk Errors Checking

Posted in | at 23:33

Chkdsk (Chkdsk.exe) is a command-line tool that checks volumes for problems. The tool then tries to repair any that it finds. For example, Chkdsk can repair problems related to bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and directory errors. To use Chkdsk, you must log on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

How to run Chkdsk

Notes

Chkdsk requires exclusive access to a volume when it runs. Therefore, if one or more of the files are open on the disk that you want to check, Chkdsk displays a prompt asking if you want schedule the disk check for the next time that you restart your computer.
Chkdsk might take a long time to run, depending on the number of files and folders, the size of the volume, disk performance, and available system resources, such as processor and memory.
Chkdsk might not accurately report information in read-only mode.

How to run Chkdsk at the command prompt

Click Start, and then click Run.
In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
Use one of the following procedures:

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Speed up Windows startup

Posted in | at 23:26

System BIOS Changes

The BIOS or Basic Input/Output System is a set of instructions and commands built into the motherboard that allows the computer to know what type of hardware is connected and how to communicate with that hardware. Do not make changes to the system settings in the BIOS lightly, one mistake can render the computer unusable and cause more problems. For this reason, do not attempt making changes to the system BIOS unless you are willing to accept the risk along with it. With that said, you'll want to follow the directions below and make some simple changes to speed up the boot process.

Restart your computer
Enter the system BIOS screen by the manufacturers suggestion. Depending on the computer, this may involve pressing the DEL key, pressing F1, Pressing F10, holding down CTRL-ALT-S, or a variety of other keystrokes to get to the BIOS screen.
Once in the BIOS setup, look for a BOOT menu and select it with your keyboard arrow keys, Tab, and Enter.
In most modern BIOS screens, you'll find an option for Quick Boot. Enable this to skip memory tests and other minor Power On Self Tests (POST).

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23 ways to Speed Windows, Not only Defrag

Posted in | at 23:01

Speed up your machine the smart way.

Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.

To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.
If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.
Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.
Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.

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Install Windows 7

Posted in | at 03:34

Windows 7

Before you get into this journey of Windows 7, you need o first make sure that your machine meets the minimum requirements to run Windows 7.

To install windows 7, you need a windows 7 boot-able disk. To get windows 7 visit Microsoft website and select any of the available versions, I prefer Windows 7 ultimate ( Am using it).
Put the disk in the drive and reboot your machine, remember to change the boot order. To start you will need to go into the BIOS by either pressing the DEL, F1, F2 or F10 key depending on your motherboard manufacturer. You will see a screen when you first turn the computer on that will say press DEL, F1, F2 or F10 to enter setup. Once you are in the BIOS you will need to look for the section that says "boot order." You will instruction on how to move devices up and down, you need to make sure that CD/DVD is at the top of the list.

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