Spend some time thinking about how your computer will be used. Make a list of what needs that this computer will need to fill.

What software is an absolute necessity?

Will you need non-standard hardware like a scanner or fax in addition to your computer?

Are you more interested in word processing or gaming or both?

Thinking about what function your computer serves for all the members of your family will help you narrow down your choices.

After you’ve determined what function your computer serves in your life and the life of your family you will want to consider the speed of your new computer.

The Central Processing Unit or CPU is the brain of your computer. The CPU is the largest contributor to the overall speed of your computer. It controls all of the functions and capabilities that your computer will have.

The newest computers come with CPUs that range from 1.6 GHz to 3.2 GHz. If you are involved in graphics or want to play high-resolution computer games, you need the highest GHz that you can afford.

Another consideration is the memory or virtual storage space of your new computer. While computers are available with 128 MB of memory, you’ll want to have at least 256 MB on your machine. Memory is essential to achieving maximum speed and performance from your computer. It is recommended that you purchase your new computer with as much memory as you can get for the best price.

Memory upgrades can cost as little as $30, so if you need to build your system slowly over time it is certainly a viable option. You can always add more memory, but you can’t replace the CPU and increase your processing speed. If you have to choose between the two, go with a higher GHz processor and add more memory as you can.

The monitor can make a big difference in your enjoyment of your new computer. Although most people just accept whatever monitor comes with a computer package. However, it really does deserve more consideration.

Size is the most important factor. If you go any smaller than 17 inches, you may end up spending most of your time squinting and causing yourself unnecessary eyestrain. If you can upgrade your monitor to something larger, go for at least a 19-inch monitor.

Another option you may want to consider is getting a wireless mouse and keyboard. Going wireless with these necessary pieces of equipment will help to pare down the cords beneath your computer desk.

There are a ton of other options you need to consider when purchasing a new computer. It’s a good idea to ask people you know what types of options have worked well for them. Also, you do not need to purchase the very latest in computers. The best value is usually found with a computer that was brand new and the fastest thing going 6 months to one year ago. That is where you are likely to get the most bang for the buck. I hope this little guide has been helpful to you for buying your next computer.

Computer backup is so important to your computer that to ignore it is to risk its damnation.

Computers require care and feeding. They require that you attend to their needs. If you don’t, then they will most surely be sent to Hell.

Halloween means Hell. What! What do you mean that Halloween means Hell?

Well, if your computer is given the option of trick or treat, which will it accept? Will it accept the trick or the treat? What do you think?

Halloween is the time that computers are subject to tricks or treats. Did you know that more computers fail on Halloween than any other day of the year? That’s right. It’s true (smile). Your computer is in danger! Protect it. Do your computer backups.

Back to the Hell thing. Hell you say? Yep. Well, what do you mean by Hell?

Computer hell is the place for computers without computer backup. The failure to perform hard drive backup means that you are playing Russian Roulette with your data. Data needs your protection. Failure to protect your data may cause your home or business records to be sent to Hell.

Hell in this instance is for the records and files that cannot be resurrected. Resurrected you say, what does that mean?

It means that without computer backup as a source of salvation then the files can safely enjoy eternal oblivion. Oblivion you say, what does that mean? That means they are eternally lost from computer resurrection.

Is there any mercy for my precious files, you ask?

Why yes there is. Would like to know what the mercy for your files is? Yes! Yes! You say.

OK boys and girls listen carefully. The salvation, mercy, resurrection and redemption of your files lies in regular and consistent and persistent computer backup.

If you backup your computer consistently and persistently your files will be resurrected and saved from accidental deletion, hard drive failure and those nasty things like fire, flood, theft, earthquake, hurricanes, tornados and the like!

Computer backup is the key to your data’s salvation!

Do your computer backups boys and girls.

Milk and cookies will be served in the pantry.

Trick or treat for your computer backup?

One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.

* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze
* Click Defragment

2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors

Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.

* Follow Start > My Computer
* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
* Click the Tools tab
* Click Check Now
* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
* Click Start

3. Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.

* Go to Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next
4. Optimize Display Settings

Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:

* Show shadows under menus
* Show shadows under mouse pointer
* Show translucent selection rectangle
* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
* Use visual styles on windows and buttons

5. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers” option.

6. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

* Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst-o.asp)
* Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below

7. Optimize Your Pagefile

You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.

* Right click on My Computer and select Properties
* Select the Advanced tab
* Under Performance choose the Settings button
* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

8. Remove Fonts for Speed

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

* Open Control Panel
* Open Fonts folder
* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

9. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance

To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com).

eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.

The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops.

10. Perform a Boot Defragment

There’s a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.

On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled:

* Run the Registry Editor
* Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
* Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.
* Exit the Registry
* Reboot

Hope you find these 10 tips useful. Have a nice day!