Scuba Snacks » Tech Tip

Disk Inventory X

Scuba Steve — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:32:52 +0000

Recently I was running out of space on my hard drive and I was trying to find where some possible big files were hidden on my drive taking up a bunch of space. I went out and found a program called Disk Inventory X. This helped me map out by file type and group together where big files were on my drive. It only took about a minute and it had my entire drive mapped out for me. This program is a great way to help find those big files or to help clean up cluttered drives!

Tech Tip #2 – Top 5 PC Freeware Software

Scuba Steve — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:40:04 +0000

Well for those pc users out there that need to get work done but don’t have the money to purchase some of the productivity software out there, here is the list of the top 5 programs I think any PC user should have.

1. iTunes – Hands down, best audio, video organization and file player on the market. And its free! No other program on the market can top iTunes.

2. Firefox – One of the top freeware browsers out on the market. Very close in second in my mind is Google’s Chrome browser. Both offer tabbed browsing, and very safe searching. Very good choice over the Internet Explorer that comes with Windows.

3. OpenOffice Can’t afford Microsoft Office 2007? Well get OpenOffice. This can do almost everything MO2007 can and its free! Create presentations, spreadsheets and documents! Almost worth saving the $130 bucks on MO2007 also.

4. AVG Here is a great FREE anti-virus, spyware, junk program. Two versions of this program are available, free and not-free. Free one offers great protections from the crap that a PC can get. The paid program just offers more tools and is a great choice over Norton and McAfee.

5. GIMP Now this might not be for the Computer Illiterate but for those that would like to do anything from basic image editing to full on “Photoshop Like” work, GIMP is for you. GIMP is a open-source image editor and graphics creator that is amazing for being free. I used it instead of Photoshop until I got my mac. Worked great and it even works with Photoshop files!

Well I hope this gives some ideas. Remember post your comments to what programs you might recommend! There are way more then just 5 great ones!

Tech Tip #1 – Speed up Windows XP

Scuba Steve — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:32:03 +0000

So recently my boss has had problems with his computers at work. THEY ARE SLOOOOW. So I have gone in and done some work speeding up his computers and I came up with the top 5 that helped the best:

1. Upgrade your ram: Maxing out your RAM on your computer can help so much with the overall speed. His main desktop currently has only 3gb. The computer can max out at 8gb. For doing all the Photoshop work he does, the needs the most he can get. I am sure he will be ordering some more soon along with some for the laptop that I work on.

2. Disable Indexing Service: The indexing service basically does one thing: speeds up searches. How often do you do a search for a file on your computer? I do once a month at work, if that. So by disabling this, it will turn off the service and will not continually scan the computer for those key words that may speed up a search that you might do.
–To disable:
1. In the “Start” menu, choose “Run.”
2. Type “services.msc” and press Enter.
3. Scroll-down to “Indexing Service” and double-click it.
4. If the service status is “Running”, then stop it by pressing the “Stop” button.
5. To make sure this service doesn’t run again, under “Startup Type:”, choose “Disabled.”

3. Run a Defrag: Just as it says, be defragging your computer you can free up space and speed up opening and saving of files. Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Click the Analyze button, and then click Defragment after the analyzing has been completed.

4. Run a Disk Cleanup: Running this can free up space on your hard drive and remove unnecessary files.
1. Click Start.
2. Click All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup.
3. Disk cleanup will calculate the free space on your computer, which may take a few minutes.
4. After the calculation is complete, confirm that only the following checkboxes are checked:
–I recommend only deleting
* Downloaded Program Files
* Temporary Internet Files
* Recycle Bin
* Temporary Files

5. Remove Unnecessary Programs: Removing programs that are not used can free up space and may raise operating speed due to these programs running in the background all the time.
1. Start Menu
2. Control Panel
3. Add or Remove Programs
-Then just select the programs that you never use and hit uninstall.

Hope this helps! leave comments of your own tips and tricks!

Scuba Steve