Brent Lee

Computer Speed-Up 101

 Contact Information

 Instructor
 Brent Lee
 Email: Brent.Lee@viu.ca
 Computer Philosophy
 Maintain your computer like you would
your car…
 Don’t spend all your time worrying, do it once
in a while, but don't wait for the gauges to
blink until something needs attention.
 Regular maintenance makes it run better!
 Save your money when you can!
Where is technology taking us?
 Software is becoming less expensive…

 Computers are becoming more affordable…

 Programs are requiring better hardware...
 Operating Systems require more hardware...
 Protecting personal information is becoming more
difficult....
 Computers are becoming an integral part of every day
life....
Understanding the Interior

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 How do we save money??
 Stop buying software (Upcoming Slide)

 Think about the “why” before you need to

upgrade. Is this upgrade really necessary?

 Shaw bills? Light Speed or High Speed

 Email Accounts? Are you paying? You shouldn’t

be…

 Tune up your computer once a year...not four

times a year (easier on equipment)
 What is open source?
 What is open source?

It is the term coined in March 1998 to describe software

distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing
anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute
the code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers'
ways of doing software to industry and the mainstream
by avoiding the negative connotations (to [business
people]) of the term "free software". For discussion of
the follow-on tactics and their consequences, see the
Open Source Initiative site.
How does Open Source Benefit
You?
 Open source is absolutely free! Many pieces of
software exist in the world for people to
download and use each day.

 Open source saves people money, and provides

users with good solid programs to learn and
use. I will provide a list to many sources of open
source software further in this course.
 Viruses!
A computer virus is a computer program
that can copy itself and infect a computer
without the permission or knowledge of the
user. The term "virus" is also commonly but
erroneously used to refer to other types of
malware, adware and spyware programs that
do not have the reproductive ability. A true
virus can only spread from one computer to
another (in some form of executable code)
 Spyware!

Spyware is computer software that

is installed surreptitiously on a
personal computer to intercept or
take partial control over the user's
interaction with the computer,
without the user's informed consent.
 How to clean my system…
 Operating systems: Solutions very
between Operating Systems
 XP has built in features (Right Click Drive)
 Vista has built in features (Control Panel)
 Windows 7: Built in Maintenance
 Spyware Scanners, Virus Scanner,
Registry Cleaners
 It’s still slow!
 When you buy a car, if you buy all the
extra features, more things can break,
right?
 Computers are the same way. When they ship
them to you, everything is on!

 Let me show you how to turn off some of the

features that slow down your computer!
 Vista
 XP

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 MSConfig
 Regedit:
 Start  Run  “msconfig”
 Click Startup Tab

If you are not sure about something in the

startup tab, google it. Demonstrate
 What’s Running?
 Windows XP: Right Click Taskbar -> Click
Task Manager

 Vista/ Windows 7: Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Start

Task Manager

 Using Google as a reference to clean out

those startup programs we do not need.
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 Drive Maintenance
 Windows 7/Vista: Start -> Setting ->
Control Panel -> System and Maintenance
-> Performance Information Tools

 Windows XP: Right Click Drive, Tools,

Defragmentation

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 Backup Solutions
 Sync: Offline Storage
 http://sync.live.com
 Gmail: Email Storage (7GB)
 http://gmail.google.com
 Picasa: Photo Management (2GB)
 http://picasa.google.com
 Dropbox.com: Remote Storage (2GB)
 http://dropbox.com
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 Where to get software from?
 Google search for such things as:
 “Free virus software”
 “Free image software”
 “Free spyware remover”

 www.download.com
 www.webattack.com
 Information Site for this class
 Visit: http://leeb.ca/moodle
 Click “PC: Computer Speed Up 101”
 Enter Enrollment Key: computer
 Click “Enrol me in this course”