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Saturday, January 29, 2011

The 21 Greatest PC Mysteries--Solved!

Today I got an email from my favorite tech writer, Mr.Rick Broida of PCWorld. It is so interesting that I am giving you the Web address where you can read the whole thing anf enjoy it.

"Find out why your documents won’t print, where your downloads disappear to, what a .dat file is, how those infernal toolbars invaded your browser, and much more":

Go to:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/217250/article.html?tk=nl_bex_h_topstories

I am sure most of you will get a kick out of it!

George Freire

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Most Common Computer Problems People Ask Me About

This post was published earlier last year, but I think it should be of interest to many of you:

"Dear visitors to this blog,

I spend a lot of time, (and enjoy it!), in writing stuff for this blog and finding interesting computer related items in other publications that may be of interest to all of you.

I also spend time helping mostly friends and other people they refer me to, around the area where I live, Chapin in South Carolina.

Can you guess what are the most common problems most people have when they ask for my help?

It should not be difficult to guess: "George, my computer runs so slow", or "my computer freezes for no reason", "my hard drive stopped working and I lost all my files", "I can't connect to my printer", "it takes 15 20 minutes for the computer to boot!" etc. etc.

Most of the above problems could be avoided or at least simplified if such computers would be handled with more care. A lot of people think that computers run forever and follow the principle that "as long as it ain't broke don't try to interfere with it...".

This is bad, very bad. First of all you all should believe that ALL computers, (for sure), some day will break up due to hard drive problems, viruses and spyware infections, power surges, power supply failures, etc. etc.

HOWEVER, if you handle your computer with care, (later on I'll cover what care really means), computers can last a long time and in some cases even be upgraded to the latest,(or close to it), technology available. Take for instance my wife's computer,(which of course is taken care of by me), it is about 5 years old, runs like new, has been upgraded with more RAM memory, Windows 7, and I am now contemplating installing a new 1 TB hard drive.

Let's now talk about what computer care means:

-Fight infections from viruses, malicious spyware, trojans and other invasive malware.
-Reduce atart-up programs that load automatically every time you boot the computer.
-Free hard drive space by eliminating programs that you do not use, or were loaded without you ever noticing.
-Delete on a regular basis temporary Internet files, other temporary files, cookies etc.
-Defrag your hard drive on a regular basis.
-Check for malicious programs like spyware, spam, viruses etc.
-Install more RAM memory, at least up to 4 MB. RAM memory is so cheap today that this is a must.If you have 64 bit Windows 7 you can use as much RAM memory as you can afford, but for any other version of Windows, including 32 bit W7, no point in going over 4 MB RAM, because Windows will not recognize it.
-BACK UP your important files or better still make a mirror copy of you hard drive.
-Keep you computer clean and free of dust that accumulates on the cooling fans openings and inside the computer case.

The above are some of the most important steps most computer owners can easily take care of. If you take care of those I can assure you that your computer will run much better than it does now, and it will last much longer also.

There are many utility programs that can be used to correct all of the problems outlined above. Many are free for the taking, others have to be paid for.

I have made available on this blog, many of these utility programs, which can be downloaded and installed, by just clicking on web addresses also outlined on these pages.

THEY ARE ALL STILL AVAILABLE BY JUST VISITING THE POSTS PUBLISHED SINCE THE BIRTH OF THIS BLOG IN DECEMBER 2008.

All you have to do is scroll down to older posts or check the roster of posts outlined on the left column of the opening page.

Here is a list of the most popular and best utility programs you can find here, that will help you keep your computer in top shape:

-Ashampoo Win Optimiser
-CCleaner
-Advanced System Care
-Disk Keeper
-Free Fixer
-Registry Mechanic
-Defraggler
-Startups-all
-Ad Aware
-Spybot
-Fences
-Speccy
-Starup Delayer
-Avira Antivirus
-Clamwin Antivirus

And many more...

By the way, if you have a problem finding any of the above on the blog, all you have to do is google the name, and for sure you'll find the proper web address to download whatever you are looking for.

I will be glad to help you use all of the above or give you more recommendations, all you have to do is ask me.

George Freire "

Friday, January 14, 2011

Rufus And His Slingshot

A good friend of mine sent me an e-mail about this guy Rufus and what he can do with a slingshot. Yes a slingshot, so what?

WELL, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT THIS GUY CAN DO WITH A SLINGSHOT.

It is absolutely unbelievable. Just check the following video:

http://www.wimp.com/toogood

This guy must be unique in the wold!

Don't tell me I only post stuff about computers...

Enjoy, your comments are welcomed.

George Freire

Monday, January 10, 2011

IT'S BEEN A LONG CHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAY SEASON

Dear viewers,

Sorry for being so quiet for the last few weeks, but our Christmas and Holiday Season this year took a lot of our available time and kept me away from the blog. Sorry for those who visit us regularly.

Did you know that we have visitors to this blog from countries, (other than the United States), such as Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine and United Kingdom ? It is true.

However, I am very surprised that very few viewers ever post comments, suggestions, problem experiences or ask questions. I wish you out there would be more open and communicate with us; this would make the blog a lot more interesting for all.

I do help a lot of friends in the area where I live and other people around, whom I did not know but, (by word of mouth...), came for help for their computer problems.

In the week before Christmas one friend came to me for help. He had a frozen computer that had been attacked by a mysterious virus. He was afraid he was going to lose all his picture and data files and other very important information. Can you believe that he had no backups of his files whatsoever? True and I'll bet that some of you are also in the same situation...

I tried all I know to restore his computer to no avail. It would not even boot on safe mode, so
here is what I was able to do for him:

1-Removed the hard drive from his computer.

2-Installed the hard drive as a second drive in one of my computers that I use for testing software and resolve problems, etc.

3-I was able then to open his hard drive, copy all his picture and data files to an external drive.

4-Reformatted the drive using Windows in my testing computer.

5-Reinstalled the drive in his computer and used his Windows disk to reinstall the Windows 7 software.

6-Since he had the disks for most of the apps originally installed in his computer, I was able to restore all these apps, (although it took most of the day to do it).

7-Copied all the picture and data files from the external drive back to his computer and PRONTO, his computer was back to normal.

My friend is ever so happy now. By the way, I convinced him to buy an external drive and from now on, backup all his files on a regular basis.

I mentioned the above because this is a problem that is sooo common...

The only way to cure such a problem in most cases is to do what I have explained above.

Today I'll bring to a great page from PCWORLD:

Their Best Free Downloads of 2010.

If you're looking for high-quality free software, here are some of 2010's best-reviewed and most-popular programs from our Downloads library. From effective antimalware tools to handy utilities to media helpers, here are the top free downloads of the year.

Go to:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1660-order,4/files.html

Hope you'll enjoy it.

Let me hear from you soon.

Happy New Year to you all.

George Freire