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If you have used Windows for more than a few days you have probably noticed that as you install more software your computer begins to get slower, especially when you first log into Windows.

On most computers this is because you have lots of programs trying to start up every time you login. Here’s how to eliminate unnecessary programs from your startup.

Step 1:
Identify which programs are running on startup. There are couple ways to do this. Before you begin, you should restart your computer to make sure you haven’t already closed some programs that would normally run on startup.

Many of the programs will have icons located in the taskbar (beside the clock) that shows they are running. Simply hover your mouse over the icon to see…

Ever left your computer alone for 5 minutes to come back and realize it crashed and restarted itself?

Here’s a quick guide on how to keep a log of your shutdowns. Logging will give you a time and reason for your crash/unplanned shutdown so hopefully you can fix the problem.

Step 1: Go to the start menu, click Run and then type in ‘regedit’. You should see a screen that looks like this:

Step 2: Find your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Reliability.  The complete path is located in the bottom left corner of the window.

Step 3: Right click on ‘ShutdownReasonUI’ (if you don’t have that file go to step 3.1) then click Modify. You should see something like this:

One of my biggest pet peeves about Vista is that it asks you for permission to do just about everything.  I don’t really need to be notified that I’m about to execute a file and ask if it’s OK to continue.  Of course it’s OK to continue, I’m the one that told it to in the first place!!!

I understand that this is a security issue if you don’t have permission to run certain things, however, does it have to be so annoying?  Why couldn’t there be a ‘if  you don’t want to be notified again, click here’ option that only admins can access???

Anyway, if you are just as annoyed by the ‘User Account Control’ (thats what causes all the security confirmations) as I am…

Here’s how to get rid of that annoying pop-up bubble that tells you that you’ve installed a new program.

Step 1: Click the Start menu and right click on the blue bar with your name. Click properties.

Have you ever wanted to test another operating system but were afraid it would mess up your computer? Maybe on occasion you need to use more than one operation system but don’t want to dual boot. Whatever your reason may be, virtualization is something to look into.

With VMware Server, you can install virtual machines on your computer. As the name implies, this software is designed for use on servers but can be used on regular desktops and laptops. A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a computer that executes programs like a real machine. In other words, you can run an operating system within your current operating system, almost like a…

OpenOffice is a great free alternative to Microsoft Office. For more information on OpenOffice check out my recent post Open Office- The [Free] Microsoft Office Alternative. However, if you already use OpenOffice on a daily basis, then you have probably noticed how slow it loads. Here is how to speed up the load time:

1.) Launch OpenOffice - It does not matter which of the subprograms you open.

2.) Click ‘Tools’ and then select ‘Options’.

3.) Select the ‘Memory’ from the list on the left side.

4.) Under the ‘Graphics cache’ subheading, change the settings to the following:

• Use of OpenOffice.org - 128MB
• Memory per object - 20.0MB

5.) Under the ‘Cache for inserted objects’ subheading, change the settings to the following:

• Number of objects - 20

Here is what it should look like…

Having a single program scan your computer for software updates is built into both Mac OS X and Linux. In fact, most Mac and Linux users probably don’t think much of this luxury until they try to update a Windows machine. I have dozens of software titles installed that constantly need updated and this is how I do it.

As I’m sure some of you know, Filehippo is a website that allows you to download free software. They have an excellent selection of software and everything is easy to find. If you aren’t sure what a certain program is, not only does Filehippo have a description…