My Computer Back in Service

I come across quite a few programs, applications and features almost every day in the course of normal work-a-day research trying to find the right tools to use in the Computer Consulting Business.

As a result, I often find some little known Free Downloadable or Online Features that could be of use to almost anyone to make their computing experience a little bit better and more productive.

This is just such a find…

Windows Vista has had it’s Service Pack 2 released for quite a while and is stable at this point (at least from my POV). So, it is time to make it permanent to free up about a half a gig of disk space. This can be accomplished in only 3 pain-free steps.

First: Open the Run Window, either by going to the Start-Accessories-Run or by using the Shortcut keys Window +R at the same time. You get this window.

Second: Type in compcln.exe and click OK. That will bring you to the Command Prompt with the Operation ready to go.

Third: Type Y and hit Enter and you are done. You just recovered somewhere around 500,000MB of space on your Hard Drive.

Be aware: This is a permanent deletion of the backup of your SP2 file and makes your current SP2 configuration permanent and can’t be undone. Make sure you really want to do this before you hit Yes!

I hope you find this tool to be something useful in your daily computing experience.

If you find something you think should be included, please use the comments below or use my Contact Form to let me know and I will be sure to check it out for inclusion in a future article.

Sometimes you need extra RAM (Random Access Memory) for running certain programs while online, expecially if you are streaming Music or Videos that utilize a Buffer to store information as it is being downloaded to your Media Player of choice.

While the RAM installed on your computer is fixed, you can increase the Virtual Memory to allow your system to use some of your Hard Disk space as if it were RAM.

These 5 steps will increase your VM for just such a situation.

1. Go to the Control Panel and Click on the System settings.

2. Then Navigate to Advanced System Settings (on the left hand side)

3. When there, Open the Advanced Tab and click the Settings Button in Performance

4. There you will again open the Advanced Tab and you will see your current Virtual Memory settings. Click Change.

5. Pick Custom size and add Low and High end of your Virtual Memory as needed. Once you add the additional VM, Click Set, Ok and continue to back out that way Clicking Apply and or Ok as necessary.

Now you are ready to Stream your Audio or Video files whenever you want without waiting for the Buffer to Fill every few minutes.

Although this is for Windows Vista, the same basic steps apply for other Window Operating Systems as well.

I have been using Windows Vista on my Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop for a little over a year now and have found out how unreliable Vista can be for simple additions. The ScreenSaver died at some point way back when and I have yet to find out why or how to fix the problem. If I ever find out how to make it work again short of reinstalling Vista, you will be the second to know (after me).

Another problem I have had is when adding an HID (Human Interface Device), an external keyboard to be specific. It doesn’t really matter what brand, I’ve tried a couple different brands and always ran into the same problem; the internal keyboard renders different characters than those I type into any field once I unplug the external keyboard.

To make a long story (months) short, I found out that the problem is not the keyboard, or the HID drivers themselves. The problem seems to be the internal cache where the device information is stored. And it only seems to occur if you use “Num Lock” and unplug the keyboard while it is still activated.

You might think that looking for the Cache file and clearing that would be the way to fix such a problem and it would probably work with no additional problems, but I found the simplest way was to just Deactivate the “Num Lock” before Unplugging the Keyboard.

If you just take that simple step, you will avoid a major headache using an External Keyboard with Vista.