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Posts with tag optimize

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

Make Windows shut down faster

Shut down Windows fasterI haven't tried it out to see if it works yet, but it looks promising: User Profile Hive Cleanup Service is a free  utility from Microsoft that's supposed to speed up Windows XP shutdown times considerably. The article at IntelliAdmin says the biggest culprit for slow shutdowns "is a problem unloading the current user's profile," and what the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service does is in the background and cleans up user profiles automatically. I'm not convinced that it will reduce my ~1.5 minute shutdowns to a few seconds, but every little bit helps. Oh, and FYI, after you've installed the app you'll have to reboot once before it will kick in.

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Optimize Windows' memory usage with Cacheman

CachemanAs I've mentioned in previous posts, for the number of apps I tend to run concurrently, my system is starved for RAM. Yes, I know this could be easily remedied, but until I get around to it I'm really enjoying Cacheman, a Windows app from Outer Technologies that's "designed to improve the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings." In addition to helping you tweak some settings to give your computer a little boost, Cacheman also has a great memory recovery mode that'll monitor your computer's memory use and, when it's running low, shuffle things around in RAM and free up anywhere from (in my experience) 10-50MB of physical memory. For that feature alone Cacheman is worth it's weight in gold, but fortunately for us software doesn't weigh anything and Cacheman is free.

Filed under: Windows

How to get rid of unused device drivers in Windows

Device
ManagerWhen you get rid of a device, sometimes its drivers stick around to haunt you, taking up memory and doing not much good. Windows doesn't help the situation, because it hides those missing devices in the Device Manager. TechRepublic has a handy how-to on removing those unnecessary device drivers. Definitely worth a shot if you've been swapping devices around lately.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Free tools for optimizing the Windows registry

RegistryAh, the registry--can't live with it, can't delete it. There are ways, though, to slim it down, give it a little polish, and give your system a little boost. Most of those ways are distressingly un-free, but Email Battles has a nice post about a trio of free tools that, in concert, will get the job done. First you use CCleaner to scrape out all the accumulated cruft. Then you use RegSeeker to nuke the really hard-to-find junk. Finally, you use RegDefrag to physically defrag your registry to make it work faster. All three tools are free and together they'll make your registry feel like new.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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