Silent
07-19-2011, 07:20 AM
Making Your Internet & Computer Faster - Created July 19, 2011
This is a two part guide. The first part will cover basics on making your internet perform better, and making pages load faster. The Second part of the guide will teach a little about cleaning up your computer to help it stay clean and fresh.
Part 1: The Internet
The internet is a fantastic place, without it you wouldn't even be able to be reading this little guide of mine right now. :) Sometimes though, the internet can feel slower than it should, but there are some ways that we can speed up those page loading times. We will learn how to do so, now.
The first common problem that people, like me & you, face using the internet is the browser that is shipped with the OS. That's right I'm talking about good old Internet Explorer, and we will be ditching it today. Some of you *might* be saying "I can't leave IE!! Some of my websites won't load in other browsers!!" This is wrong. I will show you how to get around this. :rolleyes:
First, we must get a different browser to replace IE. Pretty much any of the alternatives are better, but for the sake of time, I'm going to cover one. Google Chrome. (I know I talk to much, I'm getting on with the guide I promise :redface:)
Step One: Download (http://www.google.com/chrome) Google Chrome from Google.
Step Two: Run the installer you just downloaded. It will download more files from Google to complete the browser install.
Step Three: After the install is complete, run Chrome if it doesn't do so automatically. You will be prompted to select a search engine. Choose whichever you like, but I would recommend Google. ;)
Step Four: Customize Chrome to fit your needs. Chrome will give you an intro on how to install extensions and themes the first time you run it, but they tend to hind after that first install. They are hiding in the button in the top right that looks like a wrench. Some extensions that I would recommend would be Adblock, and for those of you who can't live without IE, install IE tab. This runs IE inside of Chrome, which is safer. I would love to hear about all of your favorite extensions/themes for Chrome! (I'll make a list here)
Step Five - Final: Get to know your new browser. Built in features like the New tab page - A place that lists your most visited sites along with tabs your recently closed - can really help you down the road and speed up your browsing experience. Google Chrome will also auto-complete the name of a site if you have typed it before. For example: to type in facebook in my browser, all I have to do is hit "f" and it completes the rest, I just hit enter, and I'm there. There are lots of other cool tricks, but these are the ones most commonly used. That's all I'm going to cover for now with Chrome. :)
Part 2: Cleaning Up Your Computer
A common reason for computers slowing down is too many temporary files. These can be caused by bad internet browsers, but also just seem to pile up from everyday use. Applications leave files laying around that aren't needed anymore, or just don't get used often enough to constitute taking up the space they do when they could just be re-created. So how do we fix this? We use a program called CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download).
Now that you know a little bit about what we will be doing, and with what, let me explain CCleaner a bit more. CCleaner is a program that can be used for a myriad of tasks to keep your computer clean. Everything from secure file deletion to registry cleaning, it does it. We will be using it's basic function though, which is analyzing your hard drive and programs and determining which files are wasting space and slowing down your computer. On-ward! :norris:
Step One: Download (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download) CCleaner from Piriform. (trusted source, you can also download from cnet if you like.)
Step Two: Install CCleaner from the package you just downloaded. Simple install, no need to change any of the default options. (If you don't want shortcuts created then you can uncheck those of course)
Step Three: Upon completing the install CCleaner should run itself, if it doesn't, start it. You will now have a Window that shows a bunch of check boxes under programs and other things. Don't panic, you don't need to touch those unless you know what you're doing!
Step Four:Now that CCleaner is up and running we need to tell it to Analyze our system for data that can be removed. Do this by simply clicking the "Analyze" button in the bottom right of CCleaner. After you click a progress bar will appear, let it run all the way to 100%. Once it has finished, click "Run Cleaner" which is right next to where "Analyze" was. You will again be greeted with a progress bar, let it run. (It will probably ask you to close any open browsers)
Step Five - Final Step and thoughts:As soon as the progress bar finishes you should repeat Step Four up to three times. It seems that cleaning it out reveals more data that could be removed. You can also use CCleaner to clean out your registry or purge file folders. Just look around in the menus a bit. Be careful though, you could delete system data if you tell it to delete the wrong folder. :duh:
End Guide
Well thanks for enduring that little tutorial with me, I hope you enjoy the faster browsing and more space on your hard drive. (Along with a bit faster performance from my experience.) If you have any other programs that you use to do the same thing, please post them! Options are always great, one of my favorite for web browsing, Firefox, didn't get posted right now because it's still just slower than Chrome.... Anyway, questions? Comments? Criticism? Let's hear it! :stirthepot:
This is a two part guide. The first part will cover basics on making your internet perform better, and making pages load faster. The Second part of the guide will teach a little about cleaning up your computer to help it stay clean and fresh.
Part 1: The Internet
The internet is a fantastic place, without it you wouldn't even be able to be reading this little guide of mine right now. :) Sometimes though, the internet can feel slower than it should, but there are some ways that we can speed up those page loading times. We will learn how to do so, now.
The first common problem that people, like me & you, face using the internet is the browser that is shipped with the OS. That's right I'm talking about good old Internet Explorer, and we will be ditching it today. Some of you *might* be saying "I can't leave IE!! Some of my websites won't load in other browsers!!" This is wrong. I will show you how to get around this. :rolleyes:
First, we must get a different browser to replace IE. Pretty much any of the alternatives are better, but for the sake of time, I'm going to cover one. Google Chrome. (I know I talk to much, I'm getting on with the guide I promise :redface:)
Step One: Download (http://www.google.com/chrome) Google Chrome from Google.
Step Two: Run the installer you just downloaded. It will download more files from Google to complete the browser install.
Step Three: After the install is complete, run Chrome if it doesn't do so automatically. You will be prompted to select a search engine. Choose whichever you like, but I would recommend Google. ;)
Step Four: Customize Chrome to fit your needs. Chrome will give you an intro on how to install extensions and themes the first time you run it, but they tend to hind after that first install. They are hiding in the button in the top right that looks like a wrench. Some extensions that I would recommend would be Adblock, and for those of you who can't live without IE, install IE tab. This runs IE inside of Chrome, which is safer. I would love to hear about all of your favorite extensions/themes for Chrome! (I'll make a list here)
Step Five - Final: Get to know your new browser. Built in features like the New tab page - A place that lists your most visited sites along with tabs your recently closed - can really help you down the road and speed up your browsing experience. Google Chrome will also auto-complete the name of a site if you have typed it before. For example: to type in facebook in my browser, all I have to do is hit "f" and it completes the rest, I just hit enter, and I'm there. There are lots of other cool tricks, but these are the ones most commonly used. That's all I'm going to cover for now with Chrome. :)
Part 2: Cleaning Up Your Computer
A common reason for computers slowing down is too many temporary files. These can be caused by bad internet browsers, but also just seem to pile up from everyday use. Applications leave files laying around that aren't needed anymore, or just don't get used often enough to constitute taking up the space they do when they could just be re-created. So how do we fix this? We use a program called CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download).
Now that you know a little bit about what we will be doing, and with what, let me explain CCleaner a bit more. CCleaner is a program that can be used for a myriad of tasks to keep your computer clean. Everything from secure file deletion to registry cleaning, it does it. We will be using it's basic function though, which is analyzing your hard drive and programs and determining which files are wasting space and slowing down your computer. On-ward! :norris:
Step One: Download (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download) CCleaner from Piriform. (trusted source, you can also download from cnet if you like.)
Step Two: Install CCleaner from the package you just downloaded. Simple install, no need to change any of the default options. (If you don't want shortcuts created then you can uncheck those of course)
Step Three: Upon completing the install CCleaner should run itself, if it doesn't, start it. You will now have a Window that shows a bunch of check boxes under programs and other things. Don't panic, you don't need to touch those unless you know what you're doing!
Step Four:Now that CCleaner is up and running we need to tell it to Analyze our system for data that can be removed. Do this by simply clicking the "Analyze" button in the bottom right of CCleaner. After you click a progress bar will appear, let it run all the way to 100%. Once it has finished, click "Run Cleaner" which is right next to where "Analyze" was. You will again be greeted with a progress bar, let it run. (It will probably ask you to close any open browsers)
Step Five - Final Step and thoughts:As soon as the progress bar finishes you should repeat Step Four up to three times. It seems that cleaning it out reveals more data that could be removed. You can also use CCleaner to clean out your registry or purge file folders. Just look around in the menus a bit. Be careful though, you could delete system data if you tell it to delete the wrong folder. :duh:
End Guide
Well thanks for enduring that little tutorial with me, I hope you enjoy the faster browsing and more space on your hard drive. (Along with a bit faster performance from my experience.) If you have any other programs that you use to do the same thing, please post them! Options are always great, one of my favorite for web browsing, Firefox, didn't get posted right now because it's still just slower than Chrome.... Anyway, questions? Comments? Criticism? Let's hear it! :stirthepot: