Tuesday 31 March 2009

How Do I Get Rid of Ads on My Computer?

If you have an adware infection on your computer, you know it: the constant advertisements are a tell-tale sign. Nobody likes these things, so let's take a look at what they are, how to get rid of them!

How Does Adware Get On My Computer Anyway?
Short answer: By using it.
Long answer: There are a variety of factors, such as how well your computer is protected from adware (which is different from virus protection, more on that later) and what you use the computer for. High risk groups for adware infections include music downloading and video downloading.

Do They Just Exist to Annoy Me?
They exist to line the pockets of whoever wrote them. When the ads show up on your computer, someone else is getting paid!

As an extra bit of fun, in addition to just being annoying, it also can cause your computer to slow significantly, and uses up a lot of bandwidth (leaving you with less to use the internet with)

How Do I Get Rid Of Them?
This is the most important part. Getting rid of adware can be, in short, a huge pain in the butt. If you look around on the web, you can usually find free adware scanning programs so you can figure out exactly what kind of adware you have on your computer. From there, you can Google the type of infection found and look for removal instructions (or bite the bullet and pay for adware removal)

Stay away from free adware removal programs! Many of them are designed to just infect your computer with their own adware instead of actually helping you. Free scanning is fine, but watch out for programs that advertise free removal.

What's The Best Protection Against Them?
There are a number of anti-adware programs out there that include both removal of adware as well as active protection against adware. Note that anti-virus software generally does not protect you from adware, because the two types of software are quite different (namely, viruses actively cripple your computer instead of just annoy you with ads).

Every computer that is used to access the internet should be protected by some manner of adware scanning software, just to prevent any infection.

Looking for an anti-adware program for your computer? Take a look at my NoAdware Review and grab a free adware scan to make sure your computer is entirely adware-free!

Want more options? Take a look at my Adware Removal Programs guide and take your pick!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roger_C_Edwards

Sunday 22 March 2009

Printer Drivers - The Lowdown

Printers are tricky, out of all the computer parts that you could possibly have, a printer is one of the most difficult, expensive, and hard to update and care for. In today’s society, with the rapid growth of technology and their functions, printers need to keep up. Manufacturers need to keep up with this growth, by adding speed to the printer, or adding scanners, photo printers, Bluetooth, memory card slots, mini display screens, higher printing quality, and many more things.

There are mainly 2 different types of printers, laser printers, and inkjet printers. We will run through both of them now. Laser printers are a much higher speed than the inject printers. They use a roller, or so to call it, that is electronically charged, this is coated with selenium. Photoconductivity then removes the areas that are electronically charged, but only on the areas where there is light, this roller then passes the ink which attaches itself to the electrified areas and is rolled against paper, with direct contact and heat the ink is put onto the paper. Laser printers can print up to 47 color pages per minute, and 88 black and white pages per minute.

Companies generally use these to make bulk personal mail, such as bills. Inkjet printers, these are the most common of all printers because of their simplicity and ease of use. An example of this is that you don’t need to replace the head on the printer, this allows for more expensive higher quality heads for printing, and not required for calibration, also giving higher quality images.

On the other hand if it breaks it would be cheaper to just replace the whole printer. The way an inkjet printer works is it has a microscopic needle, that supplies a continuous flow of ink onto a page, from 64,000 to 165,000 drops per second, making a crystal clear images. These work a lot like a tattoo gun, just the needle does not vibrate and there is a continuous flow of ink. Instead they use an ink that, once applied to the page, it dries at a rapid rate, staining the page.

Scanners, most home printers come with scanners, these are particularly useful when it comes to making copies of a certain document, most printers come with an internal memory, this allows you to load the image or file onto the printer and allows the printer to print without the help of the computer.

Scanners also come into use when you want to put an image onto a computer, it scans the image, and sends it through to the supplied software that decodes it and then displays it for plain view on your computer screen. Scanners can take amazingly high resolution pictures of the said object. You could put your finger onto the scanner, scan it, change the quality settings, scan it again and be able to see the smallest piece of dirt that was put between your finger print. Some scanners also automatically crop pictures for you.

Published At: www.Isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=361020&ca=Computers+and+Technology

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Don't Download Free Registry Cleaner Software Programs

Like many people you might not know what a registry cleaner is, so before we begin you need to know that it is software that scans your registry on your computer and it removes items that do not need to be there. It ensures that your stored information is not scattered everywhere and will put it all in proper order. This enables Windows to locate what is needed far more quickly which means that your computer will be faster.

Once you know what a registry cleaner is, and that you require one for your computer, you will now have to choose whether to buy one or download one free from the Internet.

Most people will usually choose the free option, quite understandably, however you need to remember that not all free software downloads are provided by honest people. Some providers are totally disreputable and will offer you a free registry download full of harmful files. Instead of speeding up your computer you end up filling it with a virus.

Any software or programs you download that causes some kind of harm to your computer contains a virus of some kind and this is known as malware. It is not only viruses that are included under the heading of malware. Anything that cause damage to your computer, whether dialers, hijackers, spyware, adware, etc, are all examples of malware.

These unscrupulous people are well aware that in order to infect your computer, or anyone else's, it helps to hide the malware in something a lot of people will want or need, like a registry cleaner, that they then offer as a free download to people. While the unsuspecting person happily downloads the program or software, thinking that what they are receiving will benefit their computer, what they are actually getting is some type of malware that will damage their computer.

Even if you are wise enough to have anti-virus on your computer, and everyone should, it will not be much use if the malware is disguised to seem part of the registry software. Anti-virus will simply not detect that it is there.

When it comes to free downloads it is best to remember that if something seems to good to be true it usually is. Instead, be safe and avoid the offers of free registry cleaner software so that you do not become another victim of the disreputable people out there.

Surprisingly, even if you did manage to find a proper registry cleaner for free online, you would not really be saving all that much, because this software is not at all expensive. Perhaps you may be wondering how registry cleaners that enable you to scan, clean and repair your Windows registry can be made available at the good prices they are.

The reason it is not expensive is because it is sold online. All that is required is for you to click the download link. But stores have expenses to consider, such as rent, wages, etc, plus they are in business to make a profit, therefore they charge much more.

You will be able to buy the actual product from registry cleaner companies but because they need to put it onto disc and then send it to you, combined with the expenses already mentioned, you will pay a lot more than you would if you buy it online. All that is required is the click of a mouse button in order to download it onto your computer.

Besides the fact that your online provider has far fewer expenses, there is also the fact that there is plenty of healthy competition, all offering register cleaning software and all wanting your business. And since you are paying for it you can rest easy in the knowledge that you are getting the real thing without any nasty surprises waiting in store.

Ryan Edward has reviewed every piece of registry cleaning software that he could get his hands on. He shares his reviews of the top registry cleaners that are available instantly online at his website. For more information about cleaning your registry and to read these in-depth reviews, I highly encourage you to visit his website now..

Please Visit: http://www.registrycleaningreviews.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Edward

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Internet Explorer Freezing - How to Fix Internet Explorer Freezing Problems the Easy Way

Tired of Internet Explorer Freezing? Want to know how to fix Internet Explorer so that it doesn't freeze up? Well you have come to the right place. Although a solid program, IE does come with quite a few flaws unfortunately. One of those flaws is that at random times it seems to freeze up on you. Before we get to how to fix Internet Explorer freezing, it is important to understand what causes it.

IE freezing is due to a breakdown in the communication between the browser and your computer. When the computer can no longer communicate with the browser, Internet Explorer does not know what to do. At this point it will freeze, lock, or crash.

So in order to repair IE, we need to fix the gap in the communication process. This gap lies within the Windows registry. The registry is the area that controls all communication between your system, software, and hardware. It contains all data to execute commands when running software and hardware.

So in order to stop Internet Explorer freezing, you need to repair the Windows registry. Unfortunately this can be more difficult than you think. The registry is an extremely sophisticated and sensitive area. Manual repair of the registry can cause even more problems if you don't know EXACTLY what you are doing.

So if you are not a computer expert, I highly recommend downloading a registry repair tool to fix Internet Explorer freezing. If you are interested you can check out some reviews of the top products below, as well as my recommendation for the #1 cleaner on the market. A free scan is also available, you can have a first hand look at the registry errors that are causing this particular problem.

Sick of your computer freezing up? Want to repair computer errors the easy way? Scan your computer for free and fix corrupt registry problems with the #1 registry cleaner on the internet. After scanning your computer, I promise you will be quite surprised by all the errors on your system.

http://www.registry-clean-up.net

Jim Marshall is a computer technician expert with over 15 years in the industry. He has an intimate knowledge of the windows registry and various register repair software. After testing some of the top registry cleaners on the market, he has created a comprehensive review site that details his findings.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Marshall

Sunday 15 March 2009

Printer Toner Cartridges - Some Important Facts

Today, all types of printers including laser printers and inkjet printers are very reasonably priced. Also, the printer toner cartridges which substitute the starter cartridges are very affordable and are very cost effective as well. There are some very good deals for the laser printer cartridges and the inkjet printer cartridges in the market, and there is no doubt that most of these great deals are found online.

Laser printer toner which is more commonly known as laser printer toner cartridges is a powdery substance which gets electrically charged during the process of printing and gets transferred to paper to complete the process. These toners come in cartridges which can be inserted into the printer.

One cartridge can print many pages. When empty, these printer toner cartridges can be replaced or refilled as well. There are two main benefits of replacing the printer toner cartridges. They are speed and portability. Toners are used extensively in photocopiers, laser printers and fax machines. Initially the toners were made of carbon. However, with the advent of time, the manufacturers combined carbon with polymers to improve the quality of the prints. Majority of the manufacturers use fuser technology which heats and melts the cartridge particles to stick to the paper.

Though the polymer could differ for different manufacturers, most of them use Styrene Acrylate Copolymer or a Polyester Resin. The formulations of these printer toner cartridges might even differ from one machine to another. The basic difference between different formulations is because of the difference in particle size and the difference in melting points of those particles. Some of the manufacturers of these printer toner cartridges even use chemical processes which enhance the shapes of the particles used in these printer toner cartridges, this in turn results in better quality prints in terms of colour accuracy and better organised use of the printer toner cartridges.

Laser printer toners are broadly classified into four types. The first type is popularly known as Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM. These cartridges are manufactured by companies under their famous brand names. Some very famous OEM cartridges are Epson OEM, Canon OEM, HP OEM and Brother OEM. The second type is Generic cartridges or Compatible cartridges which usually aim at equalling or excelling the performance of the OEM Cartridges, though they are much cheaper when compared with OEM Cartridges. The third type has become very popular in the recent years, is called refurbished or remanufactured cartridges and as the name suggests are remanufactured or recycled from the OEMs. Last but not the least is the refill kits, which is in fact the cheapest way to replace the replace the printer's toner cartridge.

The toner cartridges have many advantages when compared with laser cartridges. The laser printer toners not only prints more pages but also prove to be more cost efficient in the long run when compared with the inkjet cartridges. In addition to that, the laser printer toners are also faster than inkjet cartridges and can print almost all type of papers. If used properly, there is no doubt that the laser toner cartridges can take one's printing to the next level.

About The Author:
Philip Griffiths is a partner at Paragon Matrix a leading ink, toner and pc product supplier based in the small county town of Newport, Shropshire, England. If you want to enlighten yourself with more information on printer toner cartridges such as hp's inkjet ink cartridges or dell's toner cartridges, discover the info here.

http://www.articleclick.com/

Friday 13 March 2009

DVD Organizer Software. Is it Worth It?

Today the world is accustomed to using computers to get things done. Whether we want to communicate with someone else or we want to order that latest bestseller, we can get things done with a computer. What you might not realize is that your computer can not only help you accomplish tasks, but it can also help you to organize your life. With DVD organizer software, you can not only organize your DVD files, but you can also simplify your life.

Though there are still a number of movie theaters in operation, most people are becoming used to buying movies online. Whether we watch them for a 24 hour window or we purchase them for ourselves, we're becoming used to turning our computers and our laptops into our own personal movie theaters. But even when we begin to collect these movies on our computers, things can get a little chaotic. No matter how hard we might try, we might begin to 'lose' movies in the folders and the drives of our computer. And in doing so, we might forget the great movies we already own. This is where DVD organizer software can help.

By simply installing this software onto a hard drive, you can begin to sort out the movies you want to watch. Even those who aren't extremely computer literate can handle the software installation. After installing the software, the program will look on your hard drive to find out where your movie files are. Then, it will allow you to look at all of your move files at the same time and then sort them according to whatever parameters make sense to you – title, director, genre, etc. This process will not take a long time, but it will save you time in the future.

When you have your DVDs and video files in one place, you will be able to easily see what there is to watch. Instead of having to look around for that one movie you want to see and instead of just watching the same movie over and over because that's the only one you can find, you will be able to access and to utilize your entire DVD collection. In just moments, you can scan the files you have and then pick the one that suits your mood or the mood of your family.

With DVD organizer software, you don't have to worry about 'losing' files anymore or buying the same one twice because you can't find the file. Each time you add a new movie to your computer, it will be added to your virtual DVD organizer. This allows you to simply enjoy your movies instead of having to worry about whether they are in the right order or file folder.

If you find your movie collection is getting out of control, DVD organizer software can help you. This will allow you to simply put movies onto your computer – or even just a list of the names of movies you own – and to use the list as you see fit. After all, watching movies at home is supposed to be relaxing, not a chore.

About the Author
Max Smirnov DVD Organizer Software Author

Published At: www.Isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=358863&ca=Computers+and+Technology

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Automatic Startup Programs Are Slowing Down Your Computer

As you know when you install a printer, scanner, video card, sound card, etc. onto your computer you have to install the software that comes with that device. What you might not know is that there are some tag-along programs that will sometimes get installed as well. These programs might run in the background checking for updates or give you additional functionality for that device. But you don't have to have those programs running.

By using the built in program called MSCONFIG you can take control over which programs start and which ones don't start. To get to this program just click the Start button then click Run. In that new window type MSCONFIG, then OK. When this program opens up click the Startup tab and you will see a list of the programs that are or could be running when you start your computer. The programs that have a check mark in front of them are starting automatically.

What you want to do is uncheck the programs that you don't want to load automatically. Restart the computer and there you go. Those programs (theoretically) shouldn't start automatically next time. I have seen some situations where the program does automatically add itself back. If that's the case you will have to either put up with it or uninstall the software by using the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel.

Removing programs from automatically starting using MSCONFIG is only one small thing you can do to speed up your computer, but if you want more check out my free guide to speeding up your computer by reading the information below.

Get a free guide that tells you the "Top 10 Reasons Why Your Computer Is Slow ...and how you can fix it yourself"

Downloaded the free guide at http://www.fix-your-slow-computer.com

Chad Hardy is an owner of a computer repair shop and likes helping people learn more about their computers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chad_Hardy

Saturday 7 March 2009

Common Myths of CPU's and GPU's

So, talking about "processors and graphics cards" is a little vague. Here's a start for all of you:

1. A Few Common myths of processors and graphics cards

2. The power of processors and graphics cards

3. If one were to reign supreme and have most of the computer under its control, which one will have that control?

In this article, I will be talking about some common myths.

Common Myths of Processors and Graphics Cards

Now, many of you are new to computers, some who are pretty good with computer hardware, and there're us, the experts. But there're always common myths lurking around rising from misconceptions of a few people and spreading around through forums and websites. But I'm going to crack some of them.

One common myth I come across is this one: "A computer cannot exist without a graphics card installed." Well, most of you would probably want a graphics card installed on your computer for kicks and giggles, and maybe for shows. But that's not true; computers can run WITHOUT graphics cards. A common and one of the only options for running computers without graphics cards is to have a motherboard with integrated graphics. This is a really cool feature for those of you who don't really need the graphics power because you save money from not buying a graphics card. These motherboards with integrated graphics is definitely not as powerful as some of the mid-range and high-range graphics cards, but it will churn out more than enough power to give you a display on your monitor.

Another common myth I hear a lot is "Oh no, my Core2 processor is only 1.45 GHz, it's so slow!!!!!" Again, that's definitely NOT true. The processing speed of CPUs and its efficiency depends on many factors. One main factor is the number of cores.

As technology keeps developing and revolutionizing itself, programs and hardware must both keep up. Today, we have single-core processors, dual-core processors, tri-core processors(AMD's Phenom) and the quad-core processors. Now, if you have been "trapped" by this common myth, you will think that a 3.00 GHz Pentium processor will be faster and more efficient than a Core2 1.45Ghz processor.

Well, that's wrong; take into consideration the number of cores: the Pentium has 1, and the Core2 has two cores(in this example). Now, when you have two cores PLUS hyper-threading, this means that you essentially have 4 cores, just not written on the box or the computer. This means that you have cores just as powerful or more powerful than the one in the Pentium, and you have four of them.

As you start using more and more programs simultaneously, the Core 2 processor will have an easy time utilizing its cores, but the Pentium will have a hard time because it will only have 1 core, and it can only take on so many threads and tasks. That's why processor speeds, at first glance, do not really matter.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Save and Remove Outlook Attachments, Speed Up Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular software in the world. However, Outlook should be one of the most seriously being complained software. The No.1 problem that people always complain is its speed. It usually takes half a minute to launch and we can do NOTHING in that period of time.

The huge .pst file that Outlook uses to store data is the main reason for its slow speed. I believe most people regularly send and receive attachments, Word and Excel files, Photo files and so on. Your Outlook .pst file can quickly increase to 200MB. After months, a single .pst file beyond 1GB is very common. So we should slim the .pst file. The most effective method is to save and remove attachments from emails.

First, find out the largest emails. Outlook 2007 has a very useful feature, "Larger Than 100KB". You can find it under Search Folders in your list of Outlook folders. All emails larger than 100KB will be listed in that folder. By default, the larger email will be listed first. Second, Check the emails and its attachments, save or remove the attachments. If you need the attachment but not the email message, save the attachment and delete the email. If you need the email message but not the attachment, open the email and right-click the attachment and choose Remove. The email will remain its message text only.

What a trouble and time-consuming procedure! There are tools to make it easy. Many third party solutions are created in the form of Outlook add-ins. They check all your emails, save attachments to disk, replace the attachments with shortcuts to stored attachment files. With the shortcuts, you can open the attachments as you do normally. The difference is that Outlook open the file from disk, rather than from its .pst file. The advantage is your .pst file increases in a very slow speed. This change dramatically speed up your Outlook.

A powerful Outlook attachment management add-in should have more features than the basic functions mentioned above. Attachment files can be saved in either local disks or network disks. Email messages can be fully restored with attachments when it is forwarded to other recipients. Attachment files can be renamed based on sender’s name, sender’s address, email subject and so on. Saving and removing attachment should have more flexibilities. For example, folders can be specified for add-ins to manage attachment. Attachment file types and size, sender and recipient, can be filterd by combinations of criteria.

Though free add-ins for Outlook attachment management are available. Commercial add-ins are recommended for the reasons of reliability and compatibility. Technical support is another factor for choosing add-in vendors.

About The Author:
Vincent is an expert of Microsoft Outlook. Outlook-How-To.com is a blog where he share the Outlook's tips and tricks, Outlook add-in reviews, and Outlook related book reviews. He is reviewing add-ins for how to save and remove Outlook

http://www.articleclick.com/

Monday 2 March 2009

Back-Up Your Data Online: Get Easy Data Backup

Computer data back-up is an important part of your day to day’s computing activity. They are much necessary because of the possibility of computer failure or damage. Even a minor technical error such as a virus attack or any other malware can spoil the functionality of your system thereby destroying all your data. Therefore, it is good to have a data backup before losing all the data in computer error.

If your system is the only place where you data reside, you should think about other way outs, of course other than the traditional back up methods. Online data backup can be an excellent source for this especially if your business is generating large amounts of new data daily. There are several methods of transferring your backup files to another media, but some data backup systems are more reliable than others.

With online data backup resources, you can recover your data from any media storage device. We can recover lost, deleted and formatted data from hard drives, floppy disks, basic and dynamic volumes, hardware or software raid's. Technicians there are capable enough to recover your compressed, encrypted and fragmented files. Besides just hard disk drives and floppy disks, you can also recover data from removable devices like ZIP drives, USB Hard drives, and much more.

Indeed, online data back-up can save your music (audios and videos) as well as photos from disaster. Online backup services are secure, automated and easy to use. Moreover, they are professionally managed, mirrored and come along ensuring round the clock availability of your files whenever you require them. A large multitude of customers ranging from individuals to small businesses as well as corporate have chosen backup solutions to guard their precious computer data.

There are a number of computer support resources offering online backup services, but you must look after some essential factors before handling over your confidential data to them. Firstly, opt for reliable technical support companies like iYogi Technical Services Pvt. Ltd. Secondly, always compare the service prices. Shop around and see which one best fits your business as well as individual needs. This will help you to narrow down on the best resource.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/backup-your-data-online-get-easy-data-backup-792568.html