Posts Tagged ‘computer’
Question Asked: My Computer Running Windows is Slow, What Do I Do?
Well, let me preface this by saying that in today’s day and age, there’s no reason why a computer should ever run slow. Unless of course you’re running a really old computer, but that’s a different story.
The first suggestion I’d have is to run a full system virus scan. Often times viruses and spyware get onto your computer, and can cause things to slow down to a crawl. If you don’t have an anti-virus and anti-spyware program on your computer, there’s your first mistake. Run out to Best Buy and get one. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Great, you’re back. Okay, install your application, and let it run. If you’ve got a large hard drive, it’ll take a while to complete, so go make some popcorn and grab a DVD.
Second suggestion would be to defragment your hard drive (when the virus scan is done, of course). In Windows XP simply go to the Start button -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter
This, also, will take a while to run. So let it go.
Third; if you purchased a computer from Dell, or HP, or any other PC manufacturer, chances are, it came with a whole bunch of “software” that you don’t need, and is slowing down your machine. Go through your “Add or Remove Programs” section, and delete anything you don’t want or need. Do you really need Microsoft Maps, when Google Maps rules the world? Do you need Microsoft Money when you’ve got Quicken? Things like that slow you down.
Fourth: Consolodate your IM clients; do you really need AIM, Yahoo and MSN all running at once? Get Pidgin (www.pidgin.im), and only run one application.
Fifth: See if your PC can support more RAM. Often times a computer manufacturer will sell computers with only enough memory to power the operating system, and not subsequent applications. (ie; Dell.) If you go to Crucial’s website (a company that makes computer memory), they have an application that will scan your system, tell you if you can support more, and tell you specifically what to buy. Very easy. And when the RAM comes in the mail, you can pop open your PC case, and install it. Very easy. And very effective. Website here: http://crucial.com/systemscanner/index.aspx
Running through these five steps should help improve the speed at which your computer seems to run. However, the alternative to wasting all your time doing this stuff, if you’re running an older computer, is to simply go buy a new one. There’s a million companies that sell PCs, and ten million different deals every week. As long as you go in knowing what you need the computer to do, you should be fine. Maybe tomorrow’s question will be “how to buy a new computer.”
Question Asked: Can I Share My Keyboard and Mouse Across Two Computers?
As someone who often works from home, and has certain documents on two computers, I do this all the time.
My main PC has dual monitors, and a nice keyboard and mouse. My work computer’s a laptop, which notoriously has a terrible keyboard and mouse.
The answer to your prayers? Synergy.
Synergy is an application that you’d install on both computers. You set one as the “host” (the one you want to share the keyboard and mouse for), and the other as a “client”. As long as they’re both on the same network, it’s no problem. However, if your work computer is part of a workgroup/domain, you won’t be able to set it up using the computer name, but will have to use the IP address (which I learned the hardway.)
Synergy will let you simply configure how your PCs are set up. Ie; my laptop is to the left of my leftmost monitor. I tell Synergy that, and it simply tells my mouse to move to the laptop, when I move it off the left edge of my monitor. Pretty simple.
I first found Synergy when trying to find out the answer to the same question. You can get detailed directions on how to configure it (which can be a bit confusing, at first), via LifeHacker (link here). The tutorial’s got pictures, and step by step instructions. If you work from home often, it’s great to have this little application on your side.