performance posts

Filed under: Mozilla, Browser Tips, How-Tos, Browsers

Speed up Firefox by cleaning out your SQLite databases

by Lee Mathews Aug 24th 2009

A while back, Jason mentioned giving your Firefox performance a boost by limiting the length of time items are saved in history.
At Mozilla Links, they've shared another handy tip from Mozilla developer Jeremy Orem.

His advice: take a vacuum to your SQLite databases. Here's how to do it:

Open the Firefox tools menu and click on error console.
Paste the following command into the code box as a single line (as pictured):
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");
Hit [enter] or click the evaluate button.

After a momentary hang, you'll be able to close the console and return to your main Firefox window to enjoy your leaner, meaner browser!

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: firefox, performance, sqlite, tuning, tweaks, vacuum

Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet, Hardware, Adobe

Adobe, NVidia working to improve Flash Player performance

by Lee Mathews Jun 2nd 2009

I enjoyed my MSI Wind netbook while I had it, but there was one task that always gave it fits: running Flash-based anything. Games stuttered, YouTube clips were choppy, and the system's tiny fan spun like a tin can in a tornado.

Owners of newer netbooks featuring NVidia's upcoming Tegra system-on-a-chip or Broadcom's Crystal HD will be glad to hear that Adobe is teaming up with NVidia to produce a version of the Flash player tuned for netbooks and MIDs. The goal is to provide full h.264-powered HD video to more mobile devices.

Another result of the partnership: Flash will likely see significant performance gains on other NVidia chipsets as well. At last you'll be able to put your multi-GPU SLI configuration to good use while enjoying your favorite Time Wasters!

[ via ZDNet ]

Tags: adobe-flash, broadcom, flash-player, netbook, nvidia, performance

Filed under: OS Updates, Utilities, Features, Windows, Freeware, Lists, Windows x64

7 free Windows 7 tweaking utilities

by Lee Mathews May 29th 2009

If you're running the Windows 7 RC, chances are good that you're the kind of user that likes to monkey around with settings and tweak your OS. While you can go the DIY route and hack your registry and run your mouse ragged clicking through various control panel screens, there are a number of good, free apps available designed to simplify tweaking.

Pro tip: if you run one of these apps, use their built-in checkpoint creator before committing changes or create a system restore point yourself - just in case something goes awry.

Here are five - go ahead and add your picks in the comments if you don't see your favorite listed!

EnhanceMySe7en (pictured above) - One strike against EM7 is that you must install it. On the plus side, it's 32 and 64-bit (native). On the minus side, it uses 65Mb memory when running. On the plus side, it comes with a free frogurt!

Joking aside, EM7 is absolutely packed with options. Apart from tweaks covering every nook and cranny in Windows 7, the program also includes CCleaner-like registry and disk cleaning tools, a shortcut creator, fast access to many built-in Windows utilities, and much, much more. It's a beast.

Tags: performance, registry, tweak, tweaker, tweaking, windows-7

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Ultimate Windows Tweaker updated, works on Windows 7

by Lee Mathews Feb 10th 2009

WinVista Club has released an update to their Ultimate Windows Tweaker, which now features more than 150 tweaks for Vista.

Windows 7 beta testers looking to do a bit of tweaking may want to try it as well. UWT worked well on my install, apart from throwing a single error message which didn't seem to impact the changes I made anyway.

The app allows you to customize your Windows UI a number of different ways, from taskbar and start menu settings to shutdown behavior to Internet Explorer configuration. One of my favorites: adding take ownership to the right-click context menu. For a more complete look at what UWT can do, check out the tweaks page at WinVista.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a free download, and it's also portable. If you work on a lot of Vista machines, it's well worth copying to your USB flash drive.

Tags: performance, portable, registry, tweak, tweak-ui, tweakui, vista, windows-7

Filed under: Design, Developer

Tests confirm CSS selectors slow load times

by Patrick Beeson Jun 11th 2008

Most Web designers make liberal use of CSS selectors, but that spec's sibling, descendant and child selectors can cause what designer/developer Shaun Innman calls a "significant, negative impact on page rendering." This is confirmed in tests done by UI Specialist Jon Sykes that are published on his blog.

Fortunately for most designers, the performance impact is only in extreme situations. But it's definitely something to be aware of when writing CSS.

The test was based in part on a comment by Dave Hyatt on an entry from Inman's blog.

Tags: css, page load, PageLoad, performance, web design, WebDesign

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Office, OpenOffice.org, Open Source

OpenOffice.org keeps getting slower with each new release

by Brad Linder May 29th 2008

Open source software advocates like to point to OpenOffice.org as a viable alternative to Microsoft Office. It can open, create, edit, and save Office-compatible documents including text, spreadsheet, and database files. It might not have every last bell and whistle of Office, but it gets the job done. But OpenOffice.org also has a dirty little secret: It's kind of slow. And apparently, it's getting slower all the time.

OpenOffice.org Ninja ran a battery of tests and found that with each major release, OpenOffice.org has gotten a little slower when performing common tasks like opening, closing, and exporting documents. OpenOffice.org 1.1.5, for example, launches about 40% faster than OpenOffice.org 2.4. That figure holds true whether you're doing a cold start (loading the program for the first time since rebooting your computer) or a warm start (starting the program a second, third, or 15th time).

The developers have certainly been tweaking the open source office suite to improve performance. But they also keep adding new features, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, sometimes those new features slow down program performance. Of course, if you can't wait 20-25 seconds to load your office suite, you could always just buy more RAM, a faster CPU, and umm... Microsoft Office. Or try an online office suite like Google Docs or Zoho, which load faster than OpenOffice.org if you already have a browser window open.

[via Digg]

Tags: openoffice.org, performance, speed

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Office, Productivity, Web services

Calgoo releasing Version 1.0 this week

by Chris Gilmer Jun 25th 2007

The heat is on once again in the online calendar sector. It seemed like the news was always pumping out on this front late last year, then things cooled down shortly after Calgoo announced it could sync with Google Calendar. Well, Calgoo has announced that they are hitting the big time with Version 1.0 this week.

DownloadSquad has covered Calgoo since its inception, and followed its progress along the way. It's all grown up now, and ready to get out of beta and help users keep calendar schedules clean and uncluttered. The new version will get released this Wednesday, when users can experience all of these new features:

Outlook and Google Synchronization
Redesign of calendar views
Redesign of content management system
Redesign of setup and calendar wizards
Redesign of application icons, buttons and layouts
Microsoft Outlook contact syncing
Agenda view printing
Sample calendars
Improved performance

Look out for a review of the new Calgoo from DownloadSquad when it gets released.

Check out some screenshots of the new Calgoo V1.0 Interface.

Gallery: Calgoo v1.0

Tags: api, application, calendar, cms, content management, ContentManagement, google, outlook, performance, sync

Filed under: Windows

Guide to useless Windows services

by Jordan Running Jul 20th 2006

Speaking of Windows getting bogged down, you're probably aware that Windows runs a lot of stuff in the background that takes up memory and processor cycles that could be better spent elsewhere, and you might even know how to access the Services control panel, but once you're there it can be hard to know what to keep and what to kill. There is help to be found, however: Guide to Useless Services is an article on TechTree written back in December that identifies and describes 29 services that are probably running on your computer and probably don't need to be. Shut 'em down!

Tags: disable, performance, services, speed, techtree, windows

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

FreshDiagnose system information utility

by Jason Clarke Apr 5th 2006

FreshDiagnose is a very nicely done system information and benchmarking utility in the vein of Aida32. Simply run the application, and it will do a complete system analysis, listing all hardware devices, software, relevant registry settings and LAN information. It can also do system performance benchmarking to compare performance against other similar machines, for the purpose of detecting any problems.

Tags: alda32, Benchmark, benchmarking, diagnostics, Fresh Diagnose, FreshDiagnose, Performance, registry, System Information, SystemInformation

Filed under: Fun, OS Updates, Security, Utilities, Windows

Every tweak you wanted to know about XP but were afraid to ask

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Jul 14th 2005

Wow. I knew about forcing IRQ priority because I've installed a lot of video cards in my day. A few other things, like going back the the Win2k look, ClearType, and NTFS should be old hat for WinFreaks. But there are some really solid tips over at kadaitcha.cx for speeding up any lagging XP install. Be prepared to get your hands dirty.

The entire site actually is one big tip on getting XP to work properly. From the difference between registering and activating your machine to troubleshooting Firewire devices (so glad I found that) this ad-free site seems to have it all. Well, maybe not everything, but it's comprehensive indeed.

Much of the site is made up of MS KB articles, which I often find read like a sack of potatoes. So some of these tips are not grandma-approved. Especially the ones dealing with regedit. I use it to read up on top issues, then pass that info along to anyone with those problems. Now you kids be careful or you'll troubleshoot your eye out.

Tags: performance, tips, windows

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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