Since when was the 6th to the 11th a full week? Well, I have no idea either. I just happen to having nothing else to do this week, and I really did not like posting on Fridays either. Actually, in the end, I hope to move the posting to Mondays. If all goes well, then, that will happen next week.
As for last weeks edition, and yes that is currently their temporary name (though I may refer to it as other things sometimes), I think it went quite well. Even the small number that actually visited the site, I feel that it surpassed my expectations. Hopefully this weeks edition will be even more productive.
With that said, here is the 2nd issue of Lego Tech.
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Lego Tech
June 11th, 2008
This edition of Lego Tech will continue the series on speeding up your computer, and to go side-by-side with that we will also talk about computer security. Finally at the end, as always, will be the Firefox plug-in of the week.
Speeding Up Your Computer
Part 2:
Last week we talked about managing your startup entries so that unnecessary programs don’t start up when you login. To follow that, and to make your computer even faster, we will be cleaning out your registry. We will also, if needed, scan your computer for malicious software (viruses, trojans, etc). To go along there is an article following Part 2 that discusses computer security and whether or not its needed.
You might be wondering what I’m talking about when I mention the registry. Actually the chances of that happening are quite high, seeing its not a term that the average computer user knows. I know what the registry is, but probably would have a hard time explaining it, so here is a little of what Wikipedia says on the issue:
The Windows registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows 32-bit versions, 64-bit versions, and Windows Mobile. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users, preferences of the PC, etc.
Actually that’s a little confusing. But it basically says that various Windows operating systems store settings and options in a special directory labeled “registry”. And therefore when I mention the registry, I am referring to that location.
So what’s the problem with this, why do we need to clean it out? Just like all areas of your computer, this one also slowly gets cluttered up. Almost every change your make on your computer will affect the registry is some way. A lot of these will cause various things in the registry to become invalid, and therefore are just taking up space.
The good thing is that most of these things can be fixed. If you look around though you might notice that the things that clean up the registry (Called “Registry Cleaners”), cost money. Or most of them seem to offer a very very limited trial of what they can do. We’re not going to be using those, though, we’re going to clean your registry for free. So I will now ask you to download and install Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.
When it opens it has a message saying that the program is free, but they would love it if you registered it to help in its development. I guess if you find it extremely useful and have money to spare you can do that, but for now we’ll hit “Skip”. After that the window will look like:
Now before we actually go about scanning the registry I recommend backing it up in case you accidentally mess something up. But I am going to avoid making you do anything stupid with the registry. This software will only mess with the stuff thats already broken and leave the other stuff alone (yes I’ve had some troubles with manually editing the registry [which is for very experienced computer users only]). To make the backup, though, is quite simple. Just go into the file menu and hit “Backup Full Registry”. Save it in someplace where you’ll be able to find it if necessary, and probably with a filename actually stating that its a registry backup; you might even want to put the date. It will then show a little progress bar showing the backup, which will close when the backup is done.
This is where we get into the fun stuff. In the Tasks on the left of Eusing there is a button saying “Scan registry issue”. Click that and watch Eusing do its magic. It is now scanning the registry for invalid keys (what the little pieces of information in the registry are called). Behind the Scanning progress bar any invalid keys will be displayed. Here’s my computer in the middle of a scan:
Once the scan is over that progress bar will go away also, and you will be left with a list of invalid registry entries. We can now hit the 2nd button over in the Tasks on the left – “Repair registry issue”. If you can’t guess that will repair all of the things that were checked (which unless you have experience in managing the registry, they should have all been clicked). After that a little message box will pop up that you can read if you want, or you can just close it.
Thats its! You have now cleaned out your registry! Hopefully you can tell improvements in your computers performance immediately. My computer, that I strive to keep at its peak performance, even benefited from that scan. For some things, though, you may have to restart your computer to tell a difference. Almost always this will speed up your computer starting up and logging you in.
And, I said I would help you scan your computer for malicious programs, so we’ll do that now. But, before you do that, you may want to read the article following this one, in which I talk about the need for virus software.
We will be using a program called ClaimWin. Which is an open source (meaning the code is open for everyone to edit and change and make better) virus protection program that is free. So please download, and install it. http://sourceforge.net/projects/clamwin/
Once you open it, it may go through a process of downloading updates, of which I highly recommend you allow it to do. After that it will bring you to its main screen, which looks like this:
Before we begin the actual scan though click tools>preferences, and the preferences window will pop-up. In the “General” tab in the bottom “Infected Files” section make sure that “Move to Quarantine Folder” is selected. I am pretty sure that the top “Report Only” is the default option, but I’m not for sure. But we want ClaimWin to actually do something about any malicious files, not just tell you about them. You can then close the preferences window.
We are now going to hit the almighty and powerful “Scan” button. If you can guess, this will scan your computer. Well hopefully you didn’t change which location it was scanning (C:\ should be your main hard drive, and for most users thats what you should be scanning). ClaimWin will now do what it does best. Another window will open up with a large text area and a little animation on the left. All the results from the scan will be displayed in the large text area. On a side note, let me mention that doing this scan will most likely cause your computer to slow down, so I wouldn’t recommend doing it while having a bunch of other things happening also.
Once that is done, the scan is now complete. Hopefully ClaimWin helped rid your computer of any viruses it might have.
After dealing with registry and virus protection, your computer probably increased in speed. Next week though, we’ll deal with another important aspect in your computers performance – A fragmented hard drive.
Virus Protection
Is it Necessary?
In the couple of years that I have used a computer (this computer actually), it has gone through many challenges. Though, looking at its weird history (don’t ask what this computer’s been through), viruses don’t seem to have affected it really. Actually there has only been three cases of malicious software that I can think of. And out of those three, only one was doing major harm.
So virus equals virus protection, right? Well, I disagree. Three viruses over four years, I’m pretty sure thats a very small amount. And there was no virus protection software at all installed for multiple years. Actually I don’t really use virus protection now, I have it [turned off], only running a scan periodically (every couple months). Those scans seem to always state that no viruses was found.
If you practice safe computer usage, then that decreases your already incredibly slim chances of getting a virus even further. This includes only opening email attachments from trusted sources, not going to random websites, etc. And the purpose of the “etc” is that its hard for me to think of ways to get a virus. If you just make logical decisions while using the computer, then you should be good. One big thing that I could add to the list, though, is only install programs from trusted sources. That is probably the major one, since most viruses are usually hiding inside other programs that you might install. Don’t let this make you paranoid, but watch those things.
Another reason, besides the fact you shouldn’t have any viruses for virus protection software to remove, is that virus protection software usually takes up a large amount of computer resources. Especially real time scanning, which means it will keep track of your computer all the time. These things will start at startup decreasing boot time also. That, I feel, is unnecessary. If you have virus protection software I recommend turning off any real time scanning. If it doesn’t give you a choice in the matter then I actually wouldn’t use that software. You really only need to scan your computer every so often (your choice: every week, every month, just whenever). Also scan your computer when you feel its acting slow, and especially scan it if weird things start happening (such as ads opening up randomly).
Whether or not you get virus protection software is up to you. Just be sure you choose what you use wisely if you do use it. Take note that the chances of you actually getting a virus, and whether or not you want any lag on your computer speed because of virus protection software.
Firefox Extension:
All-in-One Sidebar
This weeks add-on is All-in-One Sidebar. This allows various things to be accessed from a sidebar, such as history and downloads. Most other add-ons that use the sidebar will usually integrate into All-in-One. I feel that it helps with the cluster Firefox might cause a provides a central location for a bunch of things. I especially use it because it handles downloads, for I really dislike the extra downloads window that Firefox has. You may or may not find this extension totally convenient, but its not something that will hurt you either.
Extension Rating – 10/10
