Practicing the Black Art (06/08)
PC Pitstop – The Ultimate Tune-up
by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@comcast.net
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
If your computer’s performance resembles that of a
tortoise rather than a hare, bring it to PC
Pitstop for an overhaul. The chances are high that this unusual website
can cure most unspecified performance illnesses, relieve errors, and
cure backup problems. It’s especially good at reducing Vista related
performance issues.
Fine tuning your PC is the website’s specialty. It will take your rig
through a variety of diagnostic checks automatically. All the diagnostic
tools are entirely automatic, non-intrusive, and totally safe for your
machine. Let the tools do their work, and you will be presented with a
list of suggested improvements along with tips on how to implement them
if needed.
Most people don’t bother to keep their device drivers up to date either
because they are unaware of the importance of doing so or more likely
because they simply don’t know how. Device drivers are essential pieces
of software that allow your applications to communicate with your
hardware. They instruct printers on what to print and how to print it.
Drivers make sure that when you press an “A” on your keyboard an “A”
shows up on your screen. Without device drivers, your computer would be
useless junk.
The site offers a free Drive Alert Notification Service that determines
if your drivers are up to date. Out of date drivers can be the reason
why certain features on your hardware don’t work. Obsolete drivers can
introduce bugs into your system by creating memory conflicts. The tool
is easy to use, and no specialized knowledge is required to take
advantage of it. That can be said about any of the diagnostics on the PC
Pitstop website.
Another special tool is the optimize feature that can bring your system
running to its maximum efficiency. Manufacturers tune their systems so
they will work reliably. Efficiency is rarely considered so as time goes
on your machine runs slower.
PC Pitstop will check your internet connection to see if it is working
effectively. The fine tuning process it uses gets you up to speed
without having to install new hardware or undergo time consuming or
difficult diagnosis on your own, and the site will inform you if you
have been infected with any nasty internet bugs.
Extraneous registry keys can tear down your machine’s performance over
time. PC Pitstop can point out the redundant keys and tell you how to
remove them without damaging your system. Temporary files that Windows
uses when running are often not deleted before Windows shuts down.
Sloppily written programs can leave incorrect information in the
registry. Often files originally associated with the entries have been
moved or deleted. Over time they can drag down your system.
Caches for your web browser can be cleaned up and resized to get your
broadband connection working the way it was designed to work. Many
systems have shown dramatic increases in download speeds after being
properly adjusted. The site is able to do this by conducting dynamic
tests under actual conditions with your connection.
Most of us have unnecessary programs that run every time we boot up. PC
Pitstop will list these programs so you can remove them from automatic
startup and get faster boot times.
Vista’s default settings are designed to visually dazzle rather than
perform efficiently. PC Pitstop makes valuable suggestions and
recommendations to make your machine more responsive without sacrificing
its good looks. You can make these changes manually or purchase the
Optimize module and have it done automatically.
The amount of free space on a disk drive is an important factor in hard
drive performance. Once free space declines beyond a critical point,
hard drive performance deteriorates rapidly. Fragmentation accelerates,
web pages load slowly, and email send and receive can become unstable.
PC Pitstop’s tool DISK MD will alert you if it finds anything amiss on
your hard drive, and will tell you how to fix it.
Windows has an important feature called System Restore which can be an
invaluable aid in bringing back a crashed system. Its drawback is that
Windows has to create and delete large files every day, which can add to
fragmentation and hurt performance. Disk MD defrags those restore points
where most defrag utilities do not.
There are many more useful tools on the PC Pitstop web site. Some are
free and some are for purchase. You can pay them to take care of any
potential or actual performance issues or note the problems and fix them
yourself. It’s your choice.
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Copyright 2008. This article is from the June 2008 issue of the
Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota
Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL
34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit
computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and
our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication
the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For
further information about our group, email:
admin@spcug.org/ Web:
http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members
and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User
Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are
members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC
Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.