ADVICE ON CURING A SICK PC

Does your PC run as fast and reliably as when your first got it?
Almost certainly not!

Most PC problems are symptoms of :

• Hardware resource bottlenecks
• Windows Registry clutter and damage
• Incomplete or damaged software installations
• Invasion by virus or spyware

HARDWARE RESOURCE BOTTLENECKS

Resource bottlenecks arise mostly from the phenomenon of "software creep".

Successive updates of software are larger and more resource demanding than their predecessors as functionality, ease of use, and security safeguards are enhanced progressively.

The hardware that once happily processed the original version of your operating system and applications is no longer capable of processing the increased workload without delays.

The solution is to analyze your resource usage - the 4 key variables are

• CPU cycles (GHz);
• RAM (Gb);
• Hard Disk Storage (Gb); and
• Network bandwidth (Mb/s)

Free desktop widgets providing real time graphical logs of utilization of the four resources above have proven quite sufficient for me to reliably pinpoint the bottlenecks on my own systems. Unfortunately Yahoo has recently withdrawn their best ones. Can any reader suggest replacements?

Hardware is cheap now - especially RAM and hard disk.
The immediate performance boost from additional RAM or an extra disk costs very little and will extend the life of your system. You can even install them yourself - it's really simple.

CPU's cost much more to upgrade significantly and often require a replacement mother board.
Best deferred as long as you can manage (unless you are a keen home builder).

Network capacity is often out of our hands but I always subscribe to the fastest broadband on offer. So many doors open when you can rapidly store and retrieve your data on-line in Gigabytes - it's a whole new world of freedom and flexibility.

The combination of broadband and Google Gears (and the like) is going to revolutionize the way we compute and ultimately could even deliver us from the tyranny of Microsoft. And there's an amazing amount of online storage capacity available free of charge......


WINDOWS REGISTRY CORRUPTION

Amazing statistic for computer buffs - over 95% of the world PC users suffer from performance degradation and system unreliability as a result of Windows Registry clutter and damage.

Mostly this arises naturally through the ongoing process of adding and removing software over the course of time. The uninstall process rarely removes all traces, leaving a debris of orphan entries to clog the search mechanism and worse.

As the clutter builds, the search overhead grows geometrically, and the PC stutters and becomes sluggish and unresponsive.

Registry clutter is quite easy to fix with an automated Registry Cleaner.
This is a scanning and repair utility - widely available for $20 to $30
Registry Cleaners are often bundled now with other performance tuning tools and offer a cost effective means to defer hardware upgrade.

You'd think that Microsoft would have issued an automated Registry Cleaner by now wouldn't you? Perhaps they just don't like to admit the problem!
The manual Registry editing tools bundled with Windows are far too dangerous for us lesser mortals to play with and are best reserved for experienced PC technicians.

Which leaves a massive market that the automated Registry Cleaner software vendors hunt in like a pack of hungry sharks.
However, be cautious, there have been many examples of abusive selling and many products that do more harm than good. The new Wild West!

My new website http://PcPundit.com has plenty to say on the topic.


INCOMPLETE SOFTWARE INSTALLATIONS

Usually the result of registry damage or false positives by anti-virus or anti-spy software.
Simplest solution is to uninstall then re-install the software - this is effective 9 times from 10.
If you have problems of application incompatibility, your supplier may have some advice - otherwise you'll just have to research the allergy by trial and error.


MALWARE DAMAGE
In case you don't know the term, "Malware" (malign software) is the collective term for Viruses, Trojans, Worms, Spyware, Adware and the like.
The only good solution to Malware is prevention.
So reach for your wallet and grit your teeth.

However, do beware the growing problem of false positives - especially with anti-spyware.
Take frequent registry backups and suppress suspect items through reversible quarantine rather than deletion.
Do NOT blithely assume that anti-spyware is always correct in its malware identification.
There is a lot of software around that is benign in one context but which can be used abusively in another.
As with spam filtering - it's getting to the point where the cops sometimes cause more damage than the crooks!


This article is an extract of the materials in my new website - http://PcPundit.com
I'd much appreciate your taking a look and advising me of any improvements you recommend.

Steven Henderson
Publisher, PcPundit.com