Monday, February 12,  2001		Article

NORMALLY, we complain over a period of time that computers get slow. There are two reasons for it. The first reason is that over a period of time the technology behind the computers gets updated manifold and when we compare the two, we feel the difference obviously. The second reason for computer getting slow is their imperfect tuning and change in optimum settings. Well! You might not be aware that despite the fact that you did not change any settings in your computer lots of settings get changed and that makes the computer slower than before. This is not an error or fault but improper tuning that reduces the computer’s performance. This section of tips and tricks would deal with all such types of tuning that can spice up the performance of your computer.

Fine-tuning the Net connection

Today, the Net is one of the major applications for which a computer is normally used. However, there would be very few persons who are satisfied with the performance as some people feel that the performance of their Net connection is slow, whereas others feel that they get disconnected too often. Leaving aside the external problems like line conditions and faulty telephone lines, there are many settings that can make the Net work for you. For example, if your connection gets disconnected frequently, then adding one simple setting can reduce the frequency of disconnection. Just go to modems in Control Panel by clicking Start > Settings > Control Panel. Now, click on Modems icon that opens the modem properties window on the computer-screen. Click on properties, select the connection tab and click the advanced button.

Here you will find a dialogue box of Extra settings. Enter the value S10=50 in this box and click OK. Close the modem windows and control panel. This setting will reduce the disconnection rate, as it will force the modem to stay connected without a carrier, up to 5 seconds. However this connection would not help much if you have a problem with your phone line. Despite this setting even if you get disconnected, you must get the telephone line checked.

Another problem associated with the Net is of dialling the hunting number or automatic redialling in case of a drop in connection. Often the number of the ISP remains busy and dialling the busy numbers manually is a big problem. The solution to this problem is simple. All you need to do is Click start and Select Programs > Accessories > Communications. Now select dial-up networking and click. This will open the dial-up networking window. Now, select the connection and from the menu, select Connections > Settings. Check Redial and select the number of times to redial. This figure could be anything between 2 to 100 and one should keep the digit to 10. Then click OK and close dial-up networking.

Here you will also be required to give the time for interval between redialling. By default this will be set to one minute. However you can set it to your convenience. A time interval of 5 seconds is normally sufficient. With these settings you need not bang your head with the ISP, as redialling would be taken care of by this. You can also make use of this setting in case you wish to call up somebody using the phone-dialler. Thus you need not manually redial the busy numbers, as it will be taken care of automatically.

Removing unwanted files

The biggest problem is related to the hard disk. Normally, it is the hard disk that stores all settings of the computer. Each time you install a new program, you run a risk of some changes being saved to the original settings. Often these changes are not restored when you unload or uninstall these programs. Moreover over a period of time due to the usage of computer there are so many unnecessary files that are generated that it makes the working of the computer slow. With due diligence, you can remove many unwanted file and tune the hard disk for better performance. These files could be of two types mainly and include the one created by you and secondly the files, which are created by other Windows applications. It is easy to delete the self-created files for system-generated files. All you require is to be careful.

For example, there are certain file types like *.txt, *.prv, *.log, *.old present in the root and Windows directory, which are no longer required or used. Normally, these files are generated by the system. In order to fine-tune the hard disk, you can delete the files present in your root directory. You can also delete *.dos files from the root directory unless you are using the dual boot feature on your computer. Similarly there are certain file types in the Windows directory that are also not required. Some of the common examples of all such files are *.log, *.old, *.—, *.bak, and *.000, *.001, etc. These files represent some information, which would not be required by the computer in the normal course. Thus these files are to a large extent redundant and are not required by the system. These can be deleted. Moreover, you can also delete some *.bmp, *.avi and *.txt files from the Windows directory after properly previewing them. For a normal PC, these files not only take a lot of hard disk space but also crowd the directory unnecessarily. Other files that can be deleted to fine tune hard disk are situated in temp directory. This directory needs to be checked regularly as over a period of time a lot of *.tmp files are generated on your hard disk that is stored on your computer.

These files are not required and should often be deleted in order to get better performance from the computer. However, you should not manually delete the files from the directory c:\ windows\ temp unless the dates of the files are earlier than the last time you booted up. These applications use files to store temporary information, and won’t function properly if you try to remove them. However, files in this directory that are more than a day old can be safely removed.

The mess of files is not just created by the installation files only. There are many uninstallation files also, which holds up a lot of hard disk space. These files run large into size if your upgrade to newer version of Windows from the older version.

However as said earlier, there is a lot of caution needed while deleting the files from your computer. There are a certain file types that should not be deleted in any circumstances. Generally speaking, all those files present in your sysbackup directory should not be deleted. Moreover you should also not try to change or delete the .ini files. These files are critical for proper functioning of your computer programs and operating system. Some other files, which need special mention include system.dat, system.*, user.dat or system.ist. As a rule of thumb, you should not alter any file other than the one mentioned earlier in order to fine-tune the hard disk. If you are in doubt about a particular file, either you should avoid deleting or try by moving it to another directory or location to see if changing its place makes a difference. Another clue with regard to the usability of a file can be obtained from its date. If the date of the file is current or recent, then you should not alter/delete such file as it suggest that this file is probably in use by some application.

Besides deleting the files from the system, it is also equally important to remove all unnecessary drivers present on your system. Normally these drivers are put at the time of installation of some application of program and it is not removed when that application is removed from the system. In a majority of cases for deleting all such files, use of some software utilities like registry cleaner also helps in tuning the computer well. Though the list of tips and tricks for fine-tuning a computer is endless yet it requires a certain level of expertise.

—V.V