Does anyone else find it hard to pick up work after vacationing? Having completed a weeks worth of vacation I am back to the grind….well….sort of.

I am using this day to read up on new stories and technologies for new content on the site. Please bare with me while I compose myself and get my head out of the vacation cloud. Of course this is not easily done…

As you can see from the last post we are now taking posted questions to better serve our users. As well I would like to add if there is a new technology or concern you would like for me to address please post a comment to this blog. I would be happy to research and address topics for our users.

After all….It is you the end user for which we create the content.

The page file is used by the Windows operating system to store random information. This file is used by Windows when there is not enough room in RAM to store this information.

If you use more than one hard drive there is an option you can use to tweak the performance of the page file. This option does not really improve performance in a two partition scenario but must be used with a secondary drive as you can move the paging file to the secondary drive leaving you c: drive free to perform other actions.

First check to make sure you have a secondary drive. You must first log in with an administrator account.

1. Click Start, Run (just Start in Vista)

2. type diskmgmt.msc, and press <Enter> to open the Disk Management utility (click Continue in the User Account Control, if prompted).

The bottom pane shows each disk installed on your system and the corresponding drive letter. When considering which drive to use choose the fastest drive to store the page file on.

Note: Internal drives are faster than an external drive in most cases.

3. Right click “My Computer” and choose properties

4. ON the system properties page choose the “Advanced” tab

5. Under performance choose the settings option and then the advanced tab on the subsequent window

6. Under Virtual Memory click Change. In Vista, deselect Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.

7. In the drive list select a partition on a different drive where you want to add another paging file

8. Select Custom size if you would like to set the size yourself and type in the initial and maximum size (Microsoft says making them the same amount is most efficient configuration)

Note: If the partition you select contains another installation of Windows you will receive an error message warning that the file pagefile.sys already exists. If the two operating systems are not running at the same time through virtualization then it is safe to overwrite pagefile.sys.

You should receive a notification upon completion that the settings will not take effect until you perform a restart.

One of the most important things you can do to maintain peak performance and avoid incompatibility issues is to keep your system and device drivers updated. Of course manually updating drivers can be some what time consuming.

Locating the drivers alone then searching each manufacturers web site for your particular model and acquiring the most recent software and drivers for each individual device is pain enough.

Of course if you document your last version and the most recently installed for restore purposes, this can add to your time spent.

What if you had access to software which gave you an all in one interface for updating drivers. Well I came across one the other day. I tested the software for functionality; The interface is very simplistic.

Not only does the software scan your system for needed drivers, but as well it documents any previous version in case you need to do a driver rollback due to incompatability. The software I am reffering to is the PC Updater program.

No more searching manufacturers support sites for the most recent drivers. The software scans your system and gives access to download the latest drivers in the scan results window. From here all drivers that you have installed are downloaded to a directory on the local machine in case you need access to reinstall the drivers.

I will continue use of this software and report any finding such as like, dislikes, or compatibility issues. If you would like to review more information on this product click here.

Windows Live One Care is a utility designed by Microsoft to scan your computer for several different issues. Live One care scans your computer for unnecessary temporary files, invalid registry entries, open ports, malware, and even checks your hard drive to see if defragmentation is necessary.

The service is free for ninety days after which time there is a required yearly fee of $49.95 to maintain a subscription. Microsoft has deployed this utility to help users maintain security and functionality of their computers.

If you decide to acquire use of this utility they do require you uninstall any third party virus or firewall applications. If you have already purchased one of these types of applications this can be problematic as you will lose the use of the paid subscription to the third party service.

Overall this utility seemed to work well. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any detailed information as to what the scan has found. When trying to review the registry entries that were flagged as errors I could not locate any detailed information on the entries and what they may relate to.

Microsoft seems to counter this by stating if you have any undesirable effects to use system restore which will reverse any registry changes. This seems to be counter productive.

Before deciding to use this service you may want to read the installation requirements document by clicking here.

Windows live One Care may be a useful utility if you do not own software that already performs these functionalities. To review more detailed information concerning this product you may visit the Windows live One Care web site by clicking here.

I recently attempted installation of the Vista Home Premium operating system. I first attempted this operation to see how well it performed with the minimum system requirements. Of course it wasn’t as crisp and quick as I had hoped it would be.

After testing for quite some time I turned off all the fancy shadows and features of the operating system and of course it ran better. As I added my third party applications performance began to lag once again.

Ok… time to try the installation with the recommended requirements. Just to review what the recommended requirements are I have them listed here.

1 Ghz 32 or 64-bit processor
1 GB of system memory
40 GB hard drive with 15 GB available space
128 MB graphics memory card that supports directx 9.0

Even after updating the system configuration with the new hardware… performance did improve. Of course being a tech head I do desire the as fast as possible scenario.

After reviewing my options I decided to attempt using Windows Ready Boost to see if I could boost performance. I added a compatible USB 2.0 drive with 2 GB of capacity and configured ready boost to use the device.

After testing I would have to say I would recommend to anyone that uses Vista (which does seem to be a resource hog) and needs peak performance you may want to consider using the ready boost option. Even though you cannot monitor the ready boost device performance while installed it does appear to have benefits.

As well as the performance benefits it is as well much cheaper to add a USB drive than internal system memory. I guess Microsoft knew we might need some other option to boost performance of their new os. I’m glad they decided to add this option to the operating system.

Are there any other tech heads out there like me who wish deployment of better connectivity technology would move a little faster?

A month or so ago I visited a friend in Florida. While I was there his ISP was installing fiber to the house for Internet connectivity. Of course it made my mouth water thinking of the reliability and speeds he would have.

That is just totally cool that they are converting their entire network for all consumers to fiber connectivity.

After installation he purchased a connectivity package which allowed for up to 20MB download speeds and I believe 6MB upload. Now if you are an avid tech head or a system administrator you know just what that means…..no more slow uploads due to those darn limiting QOS files.

I hope this practice becomes a standard for all high speed Internet ISP’s. I dont know about you but that would enable me to be twice as productive when uploading websites or large files.

Currently I can only dream of a connection like this, but maybe…just maybe one day I will have something comparable.

An associate of mine recently signed up for so called unlimited wireless broadband access with a major provider. They installed their hardware and configured it for broadband access.

After a day of using the service they noted that they kept losing connection once every 30 minutes so they decided to contact the service provider for assistance.

After three days of troubleshooting the connection problem the service provider concluded it may be a tower problem that was at the root of this issue. They suggested waiting a couple of days for the engineers to review the information and they would contact them back.

After waiting an additional day past the set time frame my associate decided to contact the provider back. Of course they apologized for the lack of communication. They reviewed the case file and this time concluded that the issue was not a problem, but rather by design.

They explained that their towers are set by default to log users off automatically regardless of activity. Well this causes problems for users who work through wireless broadband for hours on end. Especially if accessing information remotely.

I think they should rename their “unlimited Internet access” plan to something more precisely descriptive…..such as the unlimited Internet for a brief period of time plan.

Be sure if you are looking into wireless broadband that you ask as many questions as possible about connectivity and speeds before you decide on a particular plan or you will end up where my associate is………trying to get out of their two year contract.

I have completed the new Microsoft Windows Vista course 5118A just this week. In review of my new training on Vista Microsoft has a new and very annoying utility internal to the operating system.

The new utilitiy is the UAC or user account control. If you have recently purchased Windows vista you know just how annoying it can be.

The utility was designed to prevent malicious software from invading your computer and to “protect users from themselves”.

Even logged in as an administrator this utility is still active and still annoying as it monitors even administrative account activity. You can turn this feature off in the accounts control panel, but of course Microsoft does not recommend it.

I know you will be just as frustrated with it as I have been, but it does add an extra security feature while monitoring installation and removal of software. As we know malicious programs can install in the background while browsing the Internet or opening email.

The UAC utility as well monitors the registry for changes and notifies if a program or user attempts to alter it and then prompts for permission.

When looking at it from a security point of view this utility can be a very useful one, but when looking at it from a productivity stand point you will have a different view of this utility.

The other day I was approached by a friend asking if I could upgrade some hardeware on one of his computers. Of course I told him it may be possible.

My friend stated he only needed it for internet and that it would not be running any applications other than Windows which was already installed and configured.

After accepting the hardware to go over there was something I had not seen in quite a while. It was a 75mhz Cyrix chip with 72 pin memory. Wow! I couldnt believe it. It’s like a paleontologist coming across a great find.

Well after the initial shock wore off I contacted my friend again and said I can do some upgrades but I will not make any guarantees as to how or even if it would do what they were wanting it to do and he agreed that was ok.

Well the upgrades worked for what they wanted it for. Just to realize…..what they spent on upgrades (in the range of $200) could have been put torwards a new computer with better functionality.

Get rid of that old hardware.

The registry contains extended information, settings and various other values for the Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP Operating System. Within the registry you can control a majority of the operating system as well as fix issues with Windows. However we only recommend users extensively experienced with the Windows registry edit it manually.

Before going into the Registry and changing or deleting anything I always recommend that you backup the registry.
To back up the registry Go to Start/run and type in the command field “regedit” without the quotes. Once the interface is open select file and then export. You should select the save in location as the root of c:\. You will need to provide a name for the file. Once completed select save.

The computer registry consists of two files hidden in the Windows directory, system.dat and user.dat. User-specific system information is contained in the user.dat file and computer and hardware specific information in the system.dat file.

Microsoft Windows now includes a new feature known as system restore. This great new feature enables a user to backup and restore their important registry and system files from an earlier date. By default this feature automatically creates a backup of the system each day When working properly. If you wish to create a restore point using system restore follow the steps below.

Try downloading the bug doctor software to test your pc for problems.

Creating a restore point

1.Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore

2.Select the option to Create a restore point

3.Click next and follow the remainder steps.

Reversing to a previously created restore point

1.Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore

2.Select the Restore my computer to an earlier time option and click next

3.Select the day and the restore point you wish to restore and click next.

Using regedit to incorrectly change data can render you system non-functional and it can cease to boot up. Please do not attempt to manually edit registry information if you are not experienced in doing so.

Keep your pc running like new with the brand new version of PC Registry Cleaner Version 2.0