If you are looking for an easy way to open files more quickly in Vista, here is one quicky adjustment that you can make. Anytime a file is opened on an NTFS partition, a date stamp is updated to show the last time that the file was accessed. This is in addition to the “last modified on” date that is updated whenever a file is saved. I often find myself checking the last modified date of files to determine the most recent version of a given document or file, but very rarely do I find much use in the last accessed date.

Disabling the last-access date stamp will allow Vista to open your files a little bit more quickly. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Start Menu and open the Registry Editor by typing “regedit” and hitting enter
2. Browse through the registry and find the following registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

3. Find the NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate setting and double-click on it
4. Change the setting value from 0 to 1 and click ok

That’s all there is to it. After your next system restart, the last-access stamp will be disabled and should allow Vista to open your files a little more quickly.

Technorati Tags: date stamps, disable last access stamp, registry tweaks, vista, vista tweaks

The vast majority of PC’s running Windows Vista have their hard drives partitioned using the newer NTFS format rather than the older and less efficient FAT32. Expecting that some users would still need to be able to run older 16-bit software from the DOS-era, Microsoft built Vista with support for the old DOS 8.3 file-name convention. Since this convention hasn’t been used since the early versions of Windows, the majority of users no longer need to retain this backward-compatibility.

If you aren’t running any older software titles, you can likely give a little boost to your file access times by disabling Vista’s backward-compatibility with the 8.3 convention. Disabling this feature is relatively easy and is done by making a small change to the Windows registry.

1. Click on the start menu open the Registry Editor by typing “Regedit” and pressing enter
2. Browse through the registry editor and find the following key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

3. Select the key and double-click on the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation setting
4. Change the setting value from 0 to 1
5. Click OK and restart

That’s all there is to it. If you find out that this change affects any of the software that you are running, you can just as easily re-enable the setting in the future.

Technorati Tags: 8.3, backward-compatibility, DOS, vista, vista tweaks

If you are like the vast majority of PC users, you generally uninstall software either by using the Windows uninstall feature or the uninstall program that came packaged with whatever software it is you’re trying to get rid of. While this method gets rid of the majority of the related program files and gets it out of your sight, there are generally a bunch of registry keys and other files that get left behind. Over time, these leftover items can help to bog down Windows performance.

Thankfully, there is a great free utility that can help put an end to poor uninstallations. The program is called Revo Uninstaller and the most recent version (v1.83) was just released earlier this year. Revo picks up the slack where the built-in Windows add/remove options fail. The program itself is a tiny 1.5 MB installation and only takes a couple of minutes to get up and running.

When you open Revo Uninstaller, you are presented with a nice list of all of the programs that are currently installed on your machine. When you uninstall a program with Revo, the software will run the pre-packaged uninstall program, then follow that up with a deep search for any leftover registry strings or files. You are presented with a list of Revo’s findings and you’ll have the option to pick what you do and don’t want to delete.

Revo also comes with a really cool junk file finder that can help you to further clean up your system. The built-in Tools Tracks Cleaner accesses cache-cleaning features including browser cache functions as well as crash memory dump files, and much more. Also included with Revo is what they call the Hunter. The Hunter allows for click-and-drag uninstall and process-killing functionality.

This is a very simple, but useful free tool that should be part of your Windows maintenance arsonal. The only warning that I do want to mention is to be extra careful when deleting a program that shares a parent folder with another program that you want to keep. Generally this is an issue when you have two programs made by the same company. In this situation, it is especially important to pay attention to which files you are deleting. Also, keep in mind that doing a full delete of a program will also erase any saved user settings and license keys that may have been saved in the registry. Just be sure that you don’t plan to install the software again in the future or that you have the license key saved somewhere else.

You can download the free Revo Uninstaller here

Technorati Tags: free uninstaller, revo uninstaller, uninstall tool, Windows Utilities

For those of you interested in the latest release of Windows 7, here is a really good Windows 7 video preview and walk-through. For the most part, Windows 7 appears to be pretty cool and it is actually less resource intensive that Windows Vista which means that it may actually perform considerably better than Vista on older machines.

Windows 7 Video Preview

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, windows 7, Windows 7 Preview, Windows 7 Video

If your Windows XP system seems to be hanging for two or three minutes each time you start it up, there may be an easy fix for you. The system hang that I’m referring to is when your desktop will load, but you will be unable to access the Start Button or Taskbar for a couple more minutes.

If this sounds like the issue you are having, the Background Intelligent Transfer service is likely to blame. If you have been applying the Windows updates from Microsoft, this issue should have been patched already, but some users are still having problems. If you are still having issues with the startup hang, give this a try:

1. Open the Start Menu and select Run
2. Type msconfig and choose OK
3. Once msconfig loads, choose the Services tab and find the Background Intelligent Transfer service
4. Choose to disable this service and reboot your system

Hopefully disabling this service will solve the problem for you. I also suggest making sure that all of your Windows updates are in place.

Technorati Tags: background intelligent transfer, hang on startup, Windows XP

All the testing and feedback from the Windows 7 Beta release a few months ago has finally culminated in the announcement of the first Windows 7 Release Candidate (Windows 7 RC). Microsoft has made the RC of its Windows Vista replacement available to the public for download on its website. If you have a system that you’d like to install Windows 7 RC on, you can download it here.

Microsoft has said that it will keep the Windows 7 download available until at least July 2009 and that it will not limit the number of available installation keys. If you decide to download and try out the new Windows on your PC, keep in mind that the RC will expire on June 1, 2010. You will have to install a full version of the operating system by then in order to continue using your system. In an annoying effort to make sure users don’t wait too long, Microsoft has set the RC to begin shutting down your PC every two hours, starting March 1, 2010.

Personally, I am going to give it a little time and wait to see how the new version of Windows performs relative to its predecessors before upgrading any of my systems. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of great performance tests and reviews over the next few weeks. I’ll be sure to post links to any interesting reviews I find as they pop up.

Technorati Tags: windows 7, windows 7 RC download, windows 7 release candidate

Many users of Windows XP have found the built-in automatic Windows updates to be extremely annoying and resource consuming. Most of these users are able to disable the automatic update feature within the Automatic Updates tab of My Computer, but very few realize that doing this does not actually stop the Automatic Update service from running in the background. Even though the service will not automatically download and install new updates, the Windows service is still running in the background and using up your system resources.

The good news is that Automatic Updates can be fully disabled in XP with relative ease. If you want to turn off the update service completely, here’s how:

1. Open the Control Panel and choose Administrative Tools –> Services
2. Find the service named “Automatic Updates” and make sure it is highlighted
3. Right-click on this service and choose the option to terminate it
4. Once you have the updates service shut down, right click on it again and go to Properties
5. When the Properties Box appears, find the “Startup type” field and change it to disabled
6. Click OK and you’re finished!

Once you take these steps, the Automatic Updates service will be disabled for good. This should free up some of your system resources and will hopefully result in better overall performance.

Technorati Tags: automatic updates, disable windows services, Windows XP

When I come across software rated 5 starts by Tucows.com, I find that it is a good indication of product quality. That is how I came across the ErrorFix- Advanced Registry Repair program. ErrorFix is an excellent option for keeping your Windows Registry clean and optimized. When I installed the software on my computer, I was pleasantly surprised by the speed in which the ErrorFix was able to scan my registry and make all of the necessary repairs. I’ve used many different registry cleaners in the past, but ErrorFix is one of the fastest and most effective I’ve used so far.

Unlike many other registry cleaning programs available, ErrorFix offers more than just straightforward registry scanning and repair. The software’s clean and easy to use interface make it easy for any user to perform other performance enhancing options like managing start-up programs and altering program options. ErrorFix also includes the ability for backup restoration, as well.

While the additional features are excellent, the registry cleaning capabilities of ErrorFix are what really makes this software shine. Despite the excellent speed of my test registry scan, ErrorFix was still able to pick up a huge variety of registry errors including invalid references to previously uninstalled software, broken shortcuts, and problematic Active X controls. The software was even able to correct a missing DLL error that Windows continued to show me with each start-up.

The bottom line is that ErrorFix is a excellent choice for the automatic maintenance of your Windows Registry. Once installed, you will most likely notice a significant improvement in both boot times and overall system performance. This software is an excellent value and makes a great addition to your Windows performance arsenal.

Visit the ErrorFix website for more information

Technorati Tags: ErrorFix, ErrorFix Review, registry cleaner, registry cleaning software

You are probably familiar with the Defrag utility that is built into Windows XP, but you might not be aware that there are different types of defrags that Windows can perform.  One type of defrag is the Application and Boot File defrag which is designed to push all commonly used programs and boot files to the edge of the hard disk for faster access. Generally, Windows automatically performs  this task every few days when the system is idle; however, you can perform the same defrag anytime by doing the following:

1. Open the start menu and select Run
2. Run the following command

   defrag c: -b

That’s all there is to it! Of course, you can substitue any hard drive into the command by changing the c: to another drive.

Technorati Tags: application defrag, boot file defrag, defrag, Windows XP

Did you know that every time you type in a web address into your browser, your browser has to turn the web address (ie. www.google.com) into an IP address of the server hosting the site in order to download the web page and other files? The system used by Windows to complete this task is a domain name system, or DNS. Each internet service provider has a DNS server that it uses to provide its users the domain to IP look-up capabilities necessary to browse the web. By default, Windows looks to your service provider’s DNS server for this information.

The problem that this creates is that not all DNS servers were created equal. Depending on your provider, the performance of its DNS resolving server may be slowing down your browsing speed. No matter how much bandwidth your connection has, a slow DNS server will hold up the loading of each page as your browser waits for the correct IP address. This can sometimes slow down the loading time of a page by a few seconds, especially if your DNS server is overloaded.

That’s where OpenDNS comes to the rescue! OpenDNS offers free DNS servers that anyone can use, regardless of your service provider. OpenDNS has extremely fast and reliable servers which can often be a great improvement over your ISP’s servers. Many users have found that using the OpenDNS servers greatly increased the speed of web browsing and the loading time for web pages.

Setting your Windows PC up to use the OpenDNS servers instead of those provided by your ISP is easy to do.

1. Open the Start Menu and type ncpa.cpl (Vista) or select Run, then type ncpa.cpl (XP)
2. Find the icon for your current network connection, right-click and choose Properties
3. On the Networking tab, find and select the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and hit Properties. If you are using Vista, you will select Internet Protocol Version 4
4. On the General tab select the option labeled “Use the following DNS server addresses:”
5. Enter the DNS server addresses for the OpenDNS servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 (These can also be found here)

   

6. Hit OK  and you’re all set!

Technorati Tags: DNS Server, OpenDNS, Vista DNS Settings, XP DNS Settings