Category Archives: Desktops

Sleep Better By Using a Blue Light Filter on Your Phone or Computer

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Blue Light Exposure

Blue Light Exposure - Should you be concernedWe all know that light can be both harmful and beneficial for our vision and our overall health, especially sleeping. Natural sunlight contains both UV and blue light. We all know the dangers of UV or Ultraviolet light and we often wear sunglasses to prevent long term damage. But, what do we know about Blue light? Blue light, which is part of the visible light spectrum, reaches deeper into your eye and its cumulative effect can cause damage to your retina and it is connected to the development of age-related macular degeneration, worst of all, it makes your brain wide awake when you are about to go to bed. This is a must have software for those that works late into the night for a better eye protection, health and productivity.

Apple and Microsoft have tackled this issue by baking new features into their operating systems. You can now turn on nighttime settings to filter out the blue tones that trigger the nervous system to become more wakeful, interfering with sleep for people who use the devices before going to bed.

The science behind these features is convincing, according  to James Stringham, a psychology researcher at the University of Georgia. “There’s a plausible rationale for blue light filters to work,” he says. “Fundamentally, if you reduce blue light with a yellowish filter, that certainly would help.”

f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you’re in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again. Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. f.lux will do the rest, automatically.

Get it here:https://justgetflux.com/

Are digital devices harmful to your eyes

11 Tips to Speed up Windows 7

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1. Uninstall Bloatware

Uninstall bloatware that came with your laptop or PC.
Or even apps you installed but no longer want. Head to Control Panel | Programs | Uninstall a program and take the hatchet to anything, such as unwanted games, that you’ll never need. Many programs will load processes at boot time and take up valuable RAM and CPU cycles. While you’re in here, you can also click “Turn Windows Features On or Off” and scan the list to see if there’s anything you don’t use. You might also try software like PCDecrapifier and Revo Uninstaller.

2. Limit Start-up Processes

Limit startup processes.
In the Start button’s search box, type MSCONFIG, then head to the Startup tab. You’ll likely see a slew of apps, mostly for system support, but you’ll be able to identify some that clearly aren’t necessary. There’s absolutely no need to have GoogleUpdate or even QuickTime running all the time, for example. Don’t delete those that support your hardware or security, but anything blatantly nonproductive can go. You may have to check the program names online with a site like processlibrary.com to see what they are—they may even be malware. If you want to get more granular, run Microsoft’s Autoruns utility.

3. Add More RAM

Add more RAM.
Windows 7 isn’t has much of a hog as Vista, but if you’re moving from XP, the memory requirements are greater. Here’s a great article to show you how to add RAM

3. Add More RAM

4. Turn Off Search Indexing

Turn off search indexing.
In Vista I, would only do this if I saw the search indexing icon in the system tray and noticed a performance lag, but that notification isn’t present in Windows 7. Of course, if you do a lot of searching, this won’t appeal to you, as some searches will be slower. To turn off indexing, open the Indexing Options Control Panel window (if you just type “index” in the Start button search box, you’ll see that choice at the top of the start menu), click “Modify” and remove locations being indexed and file types, too. If you want to leave search indexing on, but find that it occasionally slows you down, you can stop its process when you need extra speed. Right-click on Computer either in the Start menu or on the desktop, choose Manage. Then double-click Services and Applications, then Services. Find Windows Search, and double click on that. From this properties dialog, you can choose a Start-up type of Manual or Disabled to have the process silent by default.

5. Defrag

Defragment your hard drive.
Your disk stores data in chunks wherever there’s space on disk, regardless of whether the space is contiguous for one file. Defragging tidies everything up and blocks a program’s bits together so that the reader heads don’t have to shuttle back and forth to read a whole executable or data file. While this is less of a problem with today’s huge hard drives and copius RAM, a slow system can still benefit from defragmenting the disk. Windows 7 comes with a built-in defragger that runs automatically at scheduled intervals. Mine was set by default to run Wednesdays at 1:00 AM, when my PC is usually turned off; so it never got defragged. If you’re in a similar boat, you can either change the scheduled defrag, or defrag on demand. Just type “defrag” in the Windows Start Menu search bar, and click on “Disk Defragmenter.” The version of the utility is improved in Windows 7, and shows more information about what’s happening on your disk than Vista did. The Windows 7 engineering team posted a very in-depth, informative article on the Engineering Windows 7 blog.

5. Defrag

6. Clean Up Your Disk

Clean up Your Disk.
From the Start menu, choose All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Disk Cleanup. This finds unwanted junk and files such as temporary, offline Web pages, and installer files on your PC and offers to delete them all at once. You may even find that your Recycle Bin is bulging at the seams: Mine had 1.47GB I didn’t know was there! This will generally only have a noticeable affect on speed if your machine is getting close to full, however.

7. Clean Up Your Disk

7. Check for Viruses & Spyware

Check for Viruses and Spyware.
You can run the built in Windows Defender or a third-party app. You could start with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware or HitManPro. If you want a paid solution, though, I would start with VIPRE Anti-Virus.

 

 

Malwarebytes

8. Performance Troubleshooter

Use the Performance Troubleshooter.
In Control Panel’s search box, type “troubleshooting” and under System and Security, you’ll see the choice “Check for performance issues.” Run the troubleshooter and it may find the root cause of your slowdown.

9. Performance Troubleshooter

9. Turn Off Desktop Gadgets

Turn off Desktop Gadgets.
Now we come to the tips that require shutting down some of the operating system’s bling. Windows 7 ditched the actual visual sidebar of Vista, but there’s still a sidebar process running. Turn it off by typing “gadgets” in the start menu search bar, choosing “View list of running gadgets” and select each in turn and click Remove to shut any gadgets you can live without.

10. Turn Off Desktop Gadgets

10. Don’t Use a Beautiful Desktop Background

Don’t use a beautiful desktop background.
This will free up extra RAM and therefore boost speed slightly. Right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize, then Desktop Background at the bottom of the resulting dialog window. Set it to a solid color.

11. Turn Off Aero Eeffects

Turn off Aero effects.

Head to the Control Panel’s Performance Information and Tools section, and choose Adjust Visual Effects. Here you’ll find a long list of effects, but simply choosing “Adjust for best performance” will turn everything off. You’ll feel like you stepped back into a decade ago.

12. Turn Off Aero Eeffects

Disclosure: While there are definitely many other tips to speed up Windows 7 that are not covered in this article, these 11 tips have been chosen for their ease of implementation and effectiveness for the average computer user.

 

Dust, a computer’s worst enemy and what to do about it !

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So I have dust in my computer, why is this important and what should I do about it.

One important aspect of owning a  computer that is often overlooked is internal dust buildup. Dust is attracted to the inside of your computer like a magnet and will get into the computer and buildup on and around all the sensitive electronics that make your computer run properly. Dust inside a computer insulates the sensitive electronic components and causes a heat buildup of abnormal levels and gradually degrades the circuits and chips underneath all that dust and thereby causes intermittent and usually unexplainable problems and even complete failure.(see pictures below) Most commonly the fans inside a computer become clogged with dust and cannot operate at peak efficiency or in some cases at all. When the fan doesn’t work, the electronic components it is protecting overheats and in time this will cause it to fail and ultimately cause your computer to crash !

Dusty ComputerComputer killing dust

 

 

I recommended that the inside of a desktop computer be cleaned at least two times a year and up to four or more times if you live in an area that is prone to a lot of dirt,dust,cigarette or cigar smoke and or pet hair.

The procedure is simple and quick. A can of compressed air can be picked up at your local office supply, hardware, or camera store and will do nicely, just don’t spray the air with the can upside down otherwise you may get exposed to harmfully cold chemicals that may cause injury to you and the computer.

After carefully making a note of the locations, disconnect all of the cables from the back of the PC. Most desktop computers have only one or two screws that hold on the side or top panel. Take the desktop outside or into a garage to clean it. This will help keep the excess dust from accumulating near the desktop area and being drawn back into the computer, later. A dust mask should be worn for those that are prone to dust allergies. The areas to target, inside the desktop case, are the heat sink over the CPU (Central Processing Unit), the heat sink over the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) and any other heat sinks found inside. Also, all fans should be cleaned thoroughly. Each fan should be blasted with the can of air until it spins up to speed. This helps remove dust and tests fans, as well. If a fan will not spin fast while it is being subjected to the force from a can of air, it should be replaced. The power supply should be cleaned, also. The power supply is usually located in the back and upper portion of the case (for a tower), the fans of some power supplies are inside and cannot be seen clearly. Again, use the can of air and blow through the vents of the power supply. The fan will spin and the dust will be forced out.

Conclusion: Regular dust removal will significantly prolong the life and performance of your computer and provide you with a better overall computing experience and best of all fewer visits to the computer doctor…..