The Wise Penguin Tips and Tricks Blog

Is your computer not running at the same speed that it used to run when you first had it? It's probably way slower now that when you first used it and it takes a while to start which tests your patience. There are a lot of reasons for this to occur, so lets try fixing some of these up on your slow computer. Here are 10 tips and tricks to make your computer faster:

Slow Start Up
There can be a number of reasons to Windows loading very slowly when starting up. What you want to do is to go to Run, type "msconfig" and hit enter. A new window should appear and under the ‘Start Up’ tab, you need to uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Once you've rebooted Windows you should notice things will run a bit smoother.

Oh yeah, another program I thought will be very useful to speed up your computer is StartUp Delayer which will help in setting after how much time programs should be loaded after Windows boots. For example, you could set your instant messenger program to load 50 seconds after Windows starts up so that not all the programs try to start at the same time.

Slow Loading Start Menu
If the Start Menu items are loading slowly, which it normally is when everything else it slow, you can open the Registry Editor by typing in the Run menu ‘regedit.exe’ and pressing Enter. Next, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Find "MenuShowDelay", and double click to edit the value. The lower the number specified, the faster the Start Menu will load - the faster your computer will perform.

Slow Right Click Context Menu
Your Right Click menu on your computer is probably loading slow because too many programs have added unwanted entries there. What you need to do is just download this program called Mmm, install it and then modify your context menu to remove unwanted items which will speed it up.

Slow Send To Menu
When the Send To menu loads slowly, you can type ’sendto’ in the Run Dialog, and remove any unwanted items in the Explorer Window that appears. This should add some speed to it and speed up your computer.

Slow loading My Computer Window
If the My Computer Window loads slowly, in the Explorer Window, go to Tools > Folder Options > View. A new window should appear and you want to uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers” This should speed it up.

Slow loading Add or Remove Programs Applet
This really is one of the most ANNOYING piece of programs present in Windows, it takes ages to load when you have a considerable number of programs installed on your computer. You can either use the all-in-one CCleaner for this purpose, or get MyUninstaller that comes as a speedy replacement for Add or Remove Programs. If you download any of those two programs, you won't really need to go to Add or Remove Programs as it can all be done with CCleaner and MyUninstaller. This should speed up the process.

Slow Defragmentation
The Windows Defragmenter can’t get any slower, can it? You want to have an alternative to the Windows Defragmenter, and Defraggler is just one of the best ones available in the market. It’s free, and works like a charm which can speed up defragmentation manifold.

Slow Ending of Unresponsive Programs
If you’ve clicked on ‘End Task’ if any program is running unresponsive, you might have noticed that the program is not shut down straightaway, rather it takes time. You can change this by going to Run > regedit.exe > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and change this value to 1000 which means it will shut it down faster, thus speeding your computer up.

Disable Animations and Appearance Overhauls to maximize performance
If you don't really mind that your Windows isn't very eye catching then this is great for you. Go to System Properties in the Control Panel. Click on ‘Advanced’, then ‘Performance’ and click ‘Adjust for best performance’. This will boost your PC’s performance up a bit - depending on your current settings of course.

Tips:

- Don’t keep installing software. Install a program only if it really serves you a purpose.

- Keep as less programs as possible running on the System Tray. This essentially means reducing the number of programs that start during Windows start up.

- If your computer boots slow, i suggest using Bootvis to speed it up.

Those were 10 tips and tricks to make your computer faster, good luck.

OK, so now i will show you a quick and easy way to hide folders in Windows XP. But this method of hiding folders in XP is quite rudimentary, so if someone knows quite a bit about computers and how to use them then it can be easy for them to find the hidden folder. However, its a great way to hide folders from people who are too busy with other things or your parents who probably only know how to check their email ;)

First, if you want to hide a folder, its better if you dont create it in obvious places such as My Documents but rather in a place where people would normally not look. But setting a folder to Hidden doesnt mean it will be necessarily hidden. There is an option in Explorer called “Show hidden files and folders” which can display the hidden folders - if they were hidden using this method.

In order to disable this option you need to do the following.

Go to My Computer > Folder Options.

Afterwards, click on the View tab and under the Hidden files and folders section, you must choose the button that says "Do not show hidden files and folders". Click OK.

Now, locate the folder you want to hide and right click it and choose Properties.

On the General tab you should check the box in the Attributes section called Hidden. Again, click OK.

The folder now should not be visible to the naked eye :)

If you want to un-hide it then all you need to do is in Folder Options click on the View Tab and under Hidden files and folders you should choose the button named "Show hidden files and folders."

There are also some other ways to hide folders and I'll be explaining them later on,

Happy hiding :)

WisePenguin,

If you want to make sure nobody snoops around and sees what you have been upto on the internet, then read on. Deleting the browsing history can be very useful, especially for those people using shared computers. The following instructions will erase the history of any browser in Windows.

1. Click Start on the Desktop

2. Go to Settings

3. Click on Control Panel

4. Open up Internet Options

5. Ensure the General tab is selected

6. Click Clear History (or Delete) in the history box

7. Click on OK when asked whether or not to delete all files in the history folder

8. At the bottom of the General box click OK to exit

That is it! Simple.

WisePenguin,