Don't get hacked, there are a lot of nasty virus's going around these days. To stay safe is is best just not to use IE, I have been using FireFox for a few years now and not have to really worry about virus's, spyware, mailware and anything else.
Actual Booster is a small and simple utility that can help you improve application performance by allocating the majority of your CPU/Processor to the currently active application/game. It will automatically set process priority to high (or lower), for whichever application is in the foreground.
Translation: Fast! I know I love the tweak programs but this one is a good one.
The good folks at SnapFiles.com have compiled a list of the coolest free programs you can use on your USB Flash Drive. The coolest thing about these programs is that you don't have to install them on the computer you use, just click the program open it and close it.
If your computer is running a bit slow and you have checked everything else, you might want to delete your prefetch files. I'm not really sure what they are but I believe they are files that are stored for Internet Explorer so they can load faster, but it just slows your computers down. Don't worry no computer operations will be affected. :) Just open up your windows explore, and navagate to C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch then delete the files in that folder. You should notice your computer running alot faster right away.
ADVERTISEMENTS placed by Google in web pages are being hijacked by trojan software that replaces the intended text with ads from a different provider, Romanian antivirus company BitDefender said in a statement.
The trojan redirects queries meant to be sent to Google servers to a rogue server, which displays ads from a third party instead of ads from Google, BitDefender said.
Google said on Wednesday: "We have cancelled customer accounts that display ads redirecting users to malicious sites or that advertise a product violating our software principles."
"We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware in both our ad network and in our search results. We have manual and automated processes in place to detect and enforce these policies."
The trojan, named after the mythic Trojan Horse because of its ability to enter computer systems undetected, attacks Google's AdSense service, which targets advertisements to match web page content.
"This is a serious situation that damages users and webmasters alike," said BitDefender virus analyst Attila Balazs.
"Users are affected because the advertisements and/or the linked sites may contain malicious code," he said.
"Webmasters are affected because the trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from their websites."
BitDefender's website describes the trojan, which it identifies as Trojan.Qhost.WU, as spreading at a "low" level and causing "medium" damage.
Anti virus programs are nice to have, but if you don't trust using them, or you just want to make sure your system is clean you can check for virus's, mail ware, and spyware manually. Just open up your task manager, right click on the task bar, or just hit Alt, Ctrl, Delete. Then choose the processes tab. Now go to Google, and type in the processes you have running. If it is some kind of virus, trogan whatever, it will bring up a web site that tells about it. If you have something like that just ending the process won't get rid of it though, your best bet will be to look for a program that is specific to the virus, or trogan you have.
For example say you have notpad.exe running and your not sure about it just type notpad.exe into the google search engine and there will be web sites that tell all about it.
Want to upgrade your Graphics card but not sure which one to buy? Do you have a PCI type bus? AGP slot? PCI Express? Should you get a Radeon? Or an Nvidia? This site can help all the information you need to make a good decision on which type of graphics card upgrade you need.
This is a cool program to tweak some hidden internet settings in XP. I use it quite alot actually. It also has a tip section so can do some manual tweaks also. Pretty good for free!
If you would like to run some programs faster than the others you can set priorities to high. I would not set but one or two programs to high though, or you might crash. And never set it to real time. You can do this by right clicking on your task bar and choosing Task Manager, or just hit Alt, Ctrl, Delete. Then choose the processes tab.
If you have those annoying programs that seem to install themselves on your desktop, "you know the ones in the task tray in the lower right corner of your screen. After awhile they seem to accumulate. Also they hog memory resources causing your system to run slow, and sometimes crash. If you want to get rid of them you will need to go to start, select run. Type in msconfig. Choose the start up tab and uncheck any programs you don't want to start up with windows. Be careful to only check the programs you are familiar with. You could disable an important function you might need for startup.
Here is another good system tweaker. CacheBooster will increase your hard disk preformance. It has different settings for different programs, I just turn mine all the way up though.
This is a really good program to increase your proformance on your PC. Runs in the background and sits in your taskbar. I have used this program for a few years now and it really speeds up your computer dramatically. The program comes with the features of ram optimizer, system boost, cache boost, internet acceleration, LAN optimizer, and defrag activity monitor. Can't go wrong with all that! And the best thing is it is free!
If you are using IE "Heaven Forbid" you should download TFlash it gets rid of those annoying flash ads that slowdown your downloads of web sites that employ them. It also stops those ads on the popular messenger programs, thus increasing your load times. More information can be found on the download page.
finally! A free anti spyware scanner that actually quarantines the spyware. Easy to use spyware and trojan scanner. You can manage quarantines, Free updates, Many options, the only thing you can't do is schedule scans, and have real-time protection, you have to upgrade for those options. But I very handy dandy program to have.
