6 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Slow Computer

You don't have to be a computer professional to get more life out of your creeping, crawling PC. You will need a basic knowledge of computers though and be able to log in as an Administrator. You should be familiar with the My Computer (Windows Explorer) program. Other than that, if you can read, click on buttons and links and follow directions, then you can get your computer running faster and more efficient, without spending hundreds of dollars doing it.

There is no one program that will solve all of your computers problems, so it will take a few different ones to get things working nicely. Before you start, there are a couple of things that will prevent these procedures from working properly. First, if your computer has a hardware problem, then you're better off replacing the hardware or just getting a new computer. Second, if your computer is loaded with Viruses and your Virus Protection programs can't get rid of them, then you are better off reformatting your hard drive and starting from scratch. Both of those issues are beyond the scope of this article and you will need to seek professional help to resolve them.

Having the proper tools to help you with these steps will drastically effect how long it takes to complete the processes, but know that this is a time consuming endeavor. It will take a few hours to completely clean out your system, but the results will be most worth your time and effort.

The following steps sound more complicated than they really are. That is assuming that you have the proper software to do the job and we will recommend the best tools that we have found for each step.

1. Clean Out the Registry

2. Uninstall Software that is Not Needed or Used

3. Delete Temporary and Non-Essential Files

4. Run Virus/Adware/Malware/Trojan Removal Software

5. Clean out the Registry - Yes, Again

6. Defragment Your Hard Drive

Step 1: Clean Out the Registry - WARNING: The Registry is the place where Windows stores a list of all the hardware and software in your computer and the default settings for them. It actually does more than this, but that is the general idea. Messing around with the Registry IS dangerous, if you don't know what you are doing. That is why choosing the RIGHT software for this is crucial. See the bottom of this Step for a link to a list of recommended programs.

It is actually not necessary to perform this step first, but I have found that this will immediately increase the performance enough to get things moving quicker than if we didn't do it. The software that you use for this step should automatically save the Registry in its current state before ever making any changes. That way, if something does go wrong, it can be reset to its former state. The program should be easy to use and be backed by a Customer Support team. Go ahead and acquire one of the programs, in the recommended link below, if you don't already have a program that can do this, that you trust. Install it and follow the directions.

For a list of the top 5 programs that we have reviewed, check out this link: http://bit.ly/12GyYZ

Step 2: Uninstall Software that is Not Needed or Used - Over time, software gets installed onto your computer. You may use those programs for a while and then they lose their appeal and just sit there unused and taking up space on your hard drive and your Registry. If you no longer use those programs, then they should be removed. By taking up space in your Registry, they actually cause it to run slower. By uninstalling these programs, you will regain space and increase the responsiveness of your computer. To uninstall these programs, you will need to open up your computer's Control Panel. This can be found by opening the My Computer (Windows Explorer) program and selecting it from the Drive list on the left side of the screen. If you don't see the Drive list, then you can enable it by pressing on the Folders icon or by clicking the View menu, selecting Explorer Bar and choosing the Folders option. Once you click on the Control Panel, you will be presented with many items in the right pane of the screen. You will want to select the "Add or Remove Programs" or the "Programs And Features" entry, depending on your Operating System. This will open another window that will list the programs that are installed on your computer.

WARNING: If a program listed here does not look familiar to you, then you may want to leave it alone as it might be a needed program for your particular system. Such as drivers for your graphics card or crucial Windows updates. Look only for programs that you know of and no longer need. Select the program you want to uninstall and click the Change/Remove button. Follow the default prompts.

Step 3: Delete Temporary and Non-Essential Files - Many programs, that you use every day, create additional files that help them to run faster and more efficient. That, in and of itself, is not a problem and is in fact desirable. The problem comes when these programs can't or just don't clean up after themselves. These additional files are only needed while the program that created them is running. After that, they can and should be removed from your system. Also, while you surf the Internet, your computer stores various information and images from them in a cache. This is also somewhat desirable, because if you frequent those pages often, it helps them to load up more quickly, since your computer only needs to look locally to find the information rather than downloading it every time you visit the site. The Recycle Bin on your computer also holds wasteful files that need to be removed. So, with all of that said, how do we do it?

There are much better programs than what Windows provides, but we will use their built in abilities to do this job. Open up the My Computer program and locate the C: drive in the Folders panel on the left. Right-Click on the C: drive and choose the Properties option. There are several tabs on the window that pops up. Look through the tabs for the button that reads Disk Cleanup. Press that button and wait for Windows to finish scanning your computer for removable files. When completed, you can select which locations you want to clean up and then click the OK button to start. We are still working on a preferred list of programs that do a far better job than the above Windows option and will write another article when we've made our determinations.

Step 4: Run Virus/Adware/Malware/Trojan Removal Software - Viruses are programs written by malicious users designed to cause all sorts of problems for your computer. You should already have Virus software installed on your system to battle these little monsters. If you don't, then you need to get something fast. Most top of the line virus protection software programs are well known nowadays, so I don't really have a list of the best ones, although we will do an exhaustive study of some of the lesser known, less expensive programs out there. For now, you may want to take a look at AVG or Avast. A Google search will bring you to their respective web sites. Adware and Malware programs are yet another species of little beasts that can be aggressive or passive, but definitely clog up your computer, slowing it down tremendously.

For a list of the top 5 programs that we have found, check out this link: http://bit.ly/cFoJP

As stated before, go ahead and acquire one of the programs, in the recommended link above, if you don't already have a program that can do this and that you trust. Install it and follow the directions.

Step 5: Clean out the Registry - Yes, Again - Why do this step again? Simply because, now that we have removed more programs from your system, via steps 2 through 4, there are more unneeded and wasteful entries in the Registry. You would think that when you uninstall programs, that they would clean out their Registry entries too and some of the better programs will do that, but not all of them do, which makes this step necessary. You might be surprised at just how much more waste the program finds this time around. See the link in Step 1 for a list of the top 5 Registry cleaning software products.

Step 6: Defragment Your Hard Drive - Your hard drive stores all of your computers programs and the Registry. OK, you knew that. What you may or may not know, is that the hard drive stores information in blocks of spaces that are a particular size. Each block holds all or a portion of an installed program. For instance, lets say that it is setup to hold blocks in 4k chunks. One program may take up hundreds or thousands of these little blocks, depending on how big the program is. Logically, the programs should be installed sequentially in block 1, block 2, block 3, etc. When your computer is new, that is pretty much how it happens. Over time, as programs are installed and uninstalled, programs will use up any available block, no matter where it might be, so if the program takes up more space than there is available sequential blocks, your computer will break up your program and install it anywhere it finds an available block. For example, lets say that you install a program that takes up 100 blocks of space. All is well until you uninstall that program and install another program of a different size. If the new program is smaller, then it takes what it needs and all is still well. If the program is bigger than the one it replaced, then the computer will use up the 100 blocks and install the rest of the program in the next set of available blocks which could be many blocks away. Now this new program is fragmented. Meaning that some of it is installed here and the rest of it is installed on another section of the hard drive. Now we have two fragments, which still isn't bad, but can you see if the program had to be installed in several to hundreds of fragments all over the place? That's right, your computer has to look in all of those locations to get at your one program. The more fragmented programs you have on your computer, the more work your computer has to do to find it and the slower and slower it becomes. This last step reconfigures your hard drive in a way that moves these files around into the sequential order that is the most efficient and fastest for program retrieval. In this step, we will again use the Windows built in program. There are several alternatives to this, but the Windows version works just fine. To find it, click on your Start button and choose the All Programs option. Locate the Accessories folder and then look in the System Tools folder. The Disk Defragmenter program should be one of the available choices. Run this program and choose the Defragment button.

When this completes, which could take well over an hour depending on how bad the fragmentation is, you are done. It's probably not a bad idea to reboot your system at this point, just to get a fresh start, but once you do, you should notice quite a difference in performance, if you haven't already. If you don't, then it is quite possible that you have an impending hardware issue that may need to be addressed.

Thank you for reading and enjoy your rejuvenated computer.

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Plenty of Bandwidth, Not Enough Power: Responsible Data Center Power Allocation

Having enough bandwidth for your servers won't do you any good if there isn't enough power at your data center. Power allocation in data centers is becoming an increasing problem these days with rising oil prices and increasing power costs. In the past it was enough to simply supply equal power throughout the racks, with little or no concern for the distribution. But as times are changing, there's a need to rethink the way the power is allocated in data centers. Costs of cooling and supplying power make it necessary to implement a new strategy for distributing power throughout the data center.

Start by Measuring

The first step in an effective energy management solution and power allocation is to start by measuring the current power consumption and needs of the data center. To do this, the data center will need to have both hardware and software components working hand-in-hand to address the following areas:

• wasted energy

• overuse of power by certain applications

• overheating

• "hot spots"

• air conditioning

Responsible Power Allocation

Once these issues are addressed, measured and monitored, the data center can create an effective plan for allocating their power usage. An effective solution should include the following components:

• Integrated Information- Data centers should start by having a consolidated view of the power requirements including those of regulating the temperature and allocating the power to all applications with the data center.

• Flexible power management- The ability to manage power within a data center is useless if it isn't flexible. Part of responsible power management is the ability to change with changing needs. The data center should have the ability to either manually or automatically re-allocate power needs to servers or groups of servers. These changes should be based on the needs and power usages of the facility such as air conditioning, power and equipment.

• View system usages- The ability to look at how the power is being used is crucial to effectively managing it. This way the data center can make sure that all components of the center are being used efficiently before any new systems are added. Components to look at include: air conditioning, power and space requirements.

• Management of processors and resources- The ability to manage these two components allows the data center to make the most efficient use of power consumption in order to achieve the maximum efficiency in the data center.

• Proper power allocation for each server- Not all servers require the same amount of power and energy. Depending on the size, usage and bandwidth some servers require more bandwidth than others. An effective power management solution recognizes this need and has the ability to allocate more power to servers that need it and less to those that do not.

• The ability to feed energy-use information to chargeback applications- In this way, the data center has the ability to monitor which servers are using what. That is to say, which servers are using the most power, creating the most heat and requiring the most air conditioning. This way, individual servers can be held accountable for their consumption and it allows the data center to find creative ways to monitor and effectively allocate resources.

When taken as a whole, all of these components are important in order to create an effective energy solution. When a data center takes these steps to allocate their power responsibly, they not only help the daily operations of the data center, but they also help the end users as well as take responsibility for the environmental factors involved. Cost savings that come with responsible power usage are passed on to the customers. Additionally customers can feel assured that their servers will receive the amount of power that is needed, without taking away power from other servers. This is an important factor when choosing a data center to host your servers.

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Stuck With You, But Don’t Want To: Avoiding Cramped Data Centers

When it comes to hosting your servers, the number of other servers located in the facility is a very important consideration. Some people find themselves being in the position of having started hosting at a data center when it was brand new and not many people knew about it yet. Then, as time went on, the data center began to fill up. But with more servers in the data center, this also created more problems. If you stayed with your data center, watching it fill up and are fed up with the problems that a cramped and over-crowded data center brings, or if you're looking for a colocation facility for the first time, it's imperative that you know the risks involved with hosting in a crowded facility.

Pulling your Plug

With so many servers hosted in one area, it can be hard to tell which plug goes to which server. Tangles are never easy to navigate, especially for novice technicians and people with little experience in the industry. Even the seasoned professional might not be able to get through the mess of chords. Regardless of whether you're confident in your own abilities, you can't count on other people to always be precise. Accidents happen all too frequently, and if someone accidentally pulls the plug on your server instead of theirs, it spells disaster.

Power Outages

More servers mean more power being used. With so many servers filling up the outlets, it's more likely that there's going to be a power-outage. Even when a data center has redundancies and power-generators, frequent power-outages are not something you want to have happen. The more the power goes out, the more likely it becomes that the generator will fail or other associated problems will occur.

Over-heating

Servers generate heat. There's no denying that. The more servers you have, the more air conditioning you need to pump into the data center to compensate for the heat generated. But air-conditioning has its limits. Even with the AC on full-blast all the time, it won't necessarily counter the heat generated in a cramped data center.

Scary to Navigate

Crowded data centers mean lots of racks and lots of servers. But it's not like there are wide hallways between each row. Rather, racks are placed close together and the aisles in between are small, at best. Knocking down other people's servers is a major concern in this situation. If you accidentally knock over someone else's server, you could be responsible for repairing the damage or replacing the entire server. The reverse is also possible. If someone bumps into your sever and inadvertently pulls out a chord or knocks it to the ground, you could be down for a long time until someone notices. This, of course, could be detrimental to your business if your server is down for long enough.

Hot Pockets

Cooling systems in data centers are not always even. When there is too much air coming out of one server, the AC will kick in at that spot in order to cool down the rack. However, this creates a problem for other servers- there’s not enough air conditioning to go around, leaving certain areas of the data center without any cooling at all. If your server happens to be located in one these hot pockets, it could overheat. And unfortunately, there's no way to tell where one of these hot pockets is going to occur.

Security

Large and overcrowded data centers are open to a host of security breaches. With so many customers going in and out on a daily basis, it's easy for the wrong person to enter the data center. In fact, it's happened before. In one such data center, someone came into the data and stole expensive components out of someone else's server. No one in the facility thought a thing of it because they just assumed that the person was a customer working on their server. It was later discovered that this was not the case and that he had in fact stolen parts of the server.

It's easy to avoid these and other problems that could arise from hosting at a crowded data center. Switching to a newer facility that hasn't filled up yet is the best way to prevent these problems. Newer and more spacious data centers automatically eliminate these problems, giving you peace of mind that your servers are always safe and free from the hazards of over-crowded data centers.

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