How to use a new hard disk

If you’ve installed your new hard disk correctly, your computer should recognize it. When you turn on your computer, the basic input/output system (BIOS) should automatically detect the new hard disk.

If you plan to use the new hard disk as the primary partition that contains Windows, then you’ll have to install Windows on the disk before you can use your computer. You’ll need a Windows 7 installation disc to do this. For more information, search Help and Support for “Installing and reinstalling Windows.”

If you plan to use the new hard disk as a secondary disk (one that does not contain Windows), you should be able to see the new hard disk drive the next time you start your computer and log on to Windows. After Windows starts, click the Start button , click Computer, and then look for your new drive. The letter assigned to the drive will depend on your computer’s configuration. If you don’t see the new hard disk drive, try looking for it in Computer Management.

1. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management.‌ Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2.In the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management, and then look for the new drive.

You’ll probably have to format the hard disk before you can use it. For instructions, see Formatting disks and drives: frequently asked questions. Follow these same instructions to format an old hard disk that contains data you want to erase.

How to Upgrades Your Computer Memory to Boost Performance

Now a day’s computer is one of the common gadgets which has take the front seat on everyone’s work place in whole world and is used in almost all the fields from educational to corporate or to common home users but using the computer and managing the computer, both are two different sides of the coin. Anyone can use the computer, but managing and computer troubleshooting are different things. We need a strong knowledge of the hardware and operating system and the application software’s for this thing.

Some of the common issues with the computer are the slow performance .It’s very common that the computer performance decreases with the age of the computer. There are a lot of people who says that their computer works fine, when they bought it but with the time its performance decreases.

There can be several possible reasons this few of them are, with the time new software’s such as the antivirus, operating system, ms office and several other application software are released in the market with the improved hardware requirement. But if we use these new software with old hardware i.e. low Ram. Disc, if will surreally decrease the computer performance, Low disk space and several other As we all are in habit of using fast computer we want everything to be open on a click of the mouse. Few important and simple steps to optimize your computer and make it fast are,
We must use proper antivirus.

Our hard disk should be defragmented.

And last but not the least we should delete the temporary and junk file from the computer.
These file are basically unwanted files we get accumulated in our computer’s, to remove these files open the Run and type temp .a window will pop up having temporary files in it , delete them . Then type %temp% again a window will pop up delete all files from that window.

There are issues concerned with the hardware i.e. with the RAM and hard disk space; firstly we need to understand what the Ram is ram stands for random access memory. Not going into the technical aspect of this. I would to explain that this ram is required when we are using or opening multiple windows it’s the ram which manages that i.e. ram manages the multitasking in the windows. We prefer to get minimum ram when we buy the computer. We to make the computer fast. We must upgrade our computer. Normally it’s a very experience that after using a computer for 2- 3 year .stops working on it and consider it as a waste.

But we can improve our computer by upgrading it once in a year or two. We can upgrade the RAM and hard disk space. Thus it will help to improve computer performance and make our work easy

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Upgrades-Your-Computer-Memory-to-Boost-Performance&id=2457399

How to optimized Windows Vista for Better Performance

Optimized Windows Vista for Better Performance

No matter how fast or shiny computers might be when they are new, they all seem to get slower over time. That state-of-the-art PC you bought last year might not feel like such a screamer after you install a dozen programs, load it with antispyware and antivirus tools, and download untold amounts of junk from the Internet. The slowdown might happen so gradually you hardly notice it, until one day you’re trying to open a program or file and wonder, “What happened to my poor PC?”

Whatever the cause, there are a lot of ways to help speed up Windows and make your PC work better—even without upgrading your hardware. Here are some tips to help you optimize Windows Vista for faster performance.

Delete programs you never use

Many PC manufacturers pack their new computers with programs you didn’t order and might not want. These often include trial editions and limited edition versions of programs that software companies hope you will try, find useful, and then pay to upgrade to full versions or newer versions. If you decide you don’t want them, keeping the software on your computer might slow it down by using precious memory, disk space, and processing power

Limit how many programs load at startup

Many programs are designed to load automatically when Windows starts. Software manufacturers often set their programs to open in the background, where you can’t see them running, so they’ll open right away when you click their icons. That’s helpful for programs you use a lot, but for programs you rarely or never use, this wastes precious memory and slows down the time it takes Windows to finish loading.

Defragment your hard drive

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your hard disk can work more efficiently. Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also defragment your hard disk manually.

Clean up your hard disk

If you want to reduce the number of unnecessary files on your hard disk to free up disk space and help your computer run faster, use Disk Cleanup. It removes temporary files, empties the Recycle Bin, and removes a variety of system files and other items that you no longer need

Run fewer programs at the same time

Sometimes changing your computing behavior can have a big impact on your PC’s performance. If you’re the type of computer user who likes to keep eight programs and a dozen browser windows open at once—all while instant messaging your friends—don’t be surprised if your PC bogs down. Keeping a lot of e‑mail messages open can also use up memory.

Turn off visual effects

If Windows is running slowly, you can speed it up by disabling some of its visual effects. It comes down to appearance versus performance. Would you rather have Windows run faster or look prettier? If your PC is fast enough, you don’t have to make this tradeoff, but if your computer is just barely powerful enough for Windows Vista, it can be useful to scale back on the visual bells and whistles.

Try restarting if there’s a problem

This tip is simple. If your computer seems to be running slowly and closing all the currently running programs doesn’t help, trying restarting your computer. Restarting can fix performance problems where the exact cause is hard to pinpoint.

Add more memory

This isn’t a guide to buying hardware that will speed up your computer. But no discussion of how make Windows run faster would be complete without mentioning that you should consider adding more memory to your PC.

Check for viruses and spyware

If your PC is running slowly, one dreaded possibility is that it might be infected with a virus or spyware. This is not as common as the other problems, but it is something to consider. Before you worry too much, check your PC using antispyware and antivirus programs.

Check your computer’s speed

If you try these tips and your computer is still too slow, you might need a new PC or some hardware upgrades, such as a new hard disk, faster video card, or more memory. There’s no need to guess the speed of your computer, however. Windows provides a way to check and rate your PC’s speed with a tool called the Windows Experience Index.

Disable services you don’t need

This is the most technically advanced of all these tips. If you don’t want to mess with anything too advanced or complicated, you can skip this one.

Check for updates from the manufacturer

Have you visited the support website of your computer manufacturer to see if the company has released any updates for your specific model? Computer makers often issue software updates for programs they shipped with a PC, especially if the PC is relatively new.

How to customize Microsoft Windows Vista Theme

If you want to change your windows vista theme, you can do it. This post provides Windows Vista support to customize your vista theme.
Microsoft put a lot of effort into making Windows Vista a visually convincing operating system. The system still has the same Windows Vista theme protections in place that make it impossible to add custom themes to Windows Vista. There is also no easy way to change elements like the boot logo or system icons in Windows Vista.

The Windows Vista theme customization application Vista Visual Master changes that. It is a all in one solution for everyone who wants to customize the Windows Vista theme and look. The application can be divided into two sections. The first deals directly with the Windows Vista theme while the second takes care of system settings that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista.
One of the most important aspects of Windows Vista theme customization is patching the uxtheme.dll file in Windows Vista to be able to apply custom themes to the operating system. This option is available in Vista Visual Master. The same menu contains an option to change the Windows Vista theme directly to another one.
Other options that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista are the abilities to change Windows vista icons, logon pictures and the vista boot screen. All options are easily accessible and there is always an option to restore to defaults with should ease the minds of users who feel uncomfortable about changing system files in Windows Vista.
The second section is just the usual Windows Vista tweaker with the only difference that the available settings relate to visual effects on the system. It is for instance possible to remove icons from the computer desktop, remove shortcut arrows and to disable the changing of wallpapers in Windows Vista.

US-CERT warns of another variant of Conficker worm

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) warns that researchers on April 9 discovered a new variant of the Conficker worm that updates earlier infections via its peer-to-peer network.

The worm, also known as W32.Downadup, also is resuming its scan-and-infect activity, searching for unpatched systems that can be exploited.
“With the discovery of a new variant, it is even more important for users to remain watchful in detecting the Conficker worm and thoroughly cleaning systems of these infections to prevent potential, future cyber events,” US-CERT warned.

Although Conficker/Downadup has infected upwards of an estimated 10 million computers, it so far does not appear to have been engaged in overt malevolent activity. Because the malicious code can be detected and removed, the number of currently infected computers is estimated at several million.

The most recent variant appears to download additional malicious code onto compromised systems, possibly including copies of the Waledac Trojan, a spam tool. This could indicate an interest in using a Conficker botnet for spamming. Waledac has previously spread via e-mail messages that contain malicious links.

The original W32.Downadup.A exploited only the MS08-067 vulnerability in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 operating systems, for which Microsoft issued an unusual patch outside of its regular monthly patching cycle. The more recent .B variant has added password guessing and the ability to copy itself to USB drives to its capabilities, giving it a wider dissemination throughout a network once it is inside. The authors of the malware appear to be trying to gather low-hanging fruit in a network.

On April 1 a .C variant was scheduled to become active that would provide additional protection for the worm’s command and control network. The worm uses an algorithm to generate a pseudo-random list of domains for its command and control network, which its infected clients check daily for instructions. Symantec analysts who examined the new code said that the variant would use a new algorithm to determine what domains to contact. It went from generating 500 domains a day to 50,000 domains with the new algorithm. Because a command and control server can be a weak spot whose elimination can disable a botnet, this could make Conficker/Downadup more difficult to attack.

One of Conficker’s defenses is blocking access to sites providing detection and cleanup tools. This also makes it relatively easy to detect a possible infection. US-CERT advises that a simple test for the presence of Conficker/Downadup infection is to visit security solution Web sites.

http://www.symantec.com/norton/theme.jsp?themeid=conficker_worm&inid=us_ghp_link_conficker_worm
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx
http://www.mcafee.com

If a user is unable to reach any of these Web sites, it may indicate a Conficker/Downadup infection,” US-CERT says. “The most recent variant of Conficker/Downadup interferes with queries for these sites, preventing a user from visiting them. If a Conficker/Downadup infection is suspected, the system or computer should be removed from the network or unplugged from the Internet in the case for home users.”

Instructions and information on how to manually remove a Conficker/Downadup infection from a system have been published by several security vendors, which offer free tools to verify the presence of a Conficker/Downadup infection and remove the worm. They include:

Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99
Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962007
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

For more about Confickr worm virus removal you can visit on Remove Virus Online to directly Contact technical expert

General Computer Health Checkup Tips

Go further on and load everything at Windows startup that you want to be normally running every time you launch your computer — but no more! Excessive program launching at Windows startup has (minor) several bad side-effects. For example, it prolongs the startup process; in Windows 9x it predepletes System Resources, and in any Windows version it consumes RAM, CPU cycles, and other commodities; it increases the change of having incompatible programs conflict with each other; and it complicates troubleshooting since there are more things to rule out. This post help you for check your computer health and provide computer support and troubleshooting tips to maintain computer health. Here below listed some PC health checkup tips

• Don’t Disable System Restore! Part of good health is the ability to recovery quickly when you do get sick — bouncing back quickly as your old healthy self! If you are using Windows ME, XP, or Vista you have available to you the finest “bounce-back” tool Microsoft has ever developed, System Restore. Sure, it has a few things wrong with it (especially in Win ME; the tool was significantly improved in Win XP). But in many cases it’s still pretty close to a “please go fix what I just screwed up a minute ago” miracle worker. I solve dozens of terribly frustrating problems for people every week by recommending they employ System Restore to step back just before they made a blunder. I appreciate it greatly!

• Do not have a computer with a no-name motherboard or the cheapest video card you can find. Name brands do matter. One of my lessons in this: I used to be of the same voice as those who heavily disparaged the “Winmodem” style of modem — those which do not have fully self-contained logic, and rely heavily on Windows itself to provide much of the “guts.” It’s true that we saw people all the time with serious Windows problems and bad modem performance because of this. Then I unwittingly bought one (not knowing that this is the type of modem I was buying). To my surprise, it was the best modem I’d ever owned! I tried a couple of other Winmodems on loan and they were truly the worst modems I had ever used. What made the difference? The one I had bought was made by U.S. Robotics. When you buy the best, you get the best.

• A clean install as a starting point can do wonders for your system! That means that you install the operating system on a freshly wiped hard drive, rather than “updating” atop an existing version of an older operating system. Update installs are just fine in many cases, and “good enough” in others; but for the best install, start clean! This isn’t an invariable rule. A recently-released version of Windows often installs better as an upgrade atop a working (eaerlier) Windows system system simply because manufacturers are sometimes slow at getting all the necesssary hardware drivers released at first — and an upgrade will inherit older drivers that usually will keep on working. Similarly, recent Windows versions replace so much Windows code that an upgrade is darn near a clean installs anyway! (The clean install recommendation is especially a guiding rule if you’re having performance problems with Windows. It’s too big of an issue to discuss here, but you will find it discussed on other pages of this site.)

• In Windows 98 or ME, periodically run SCANREG /OPT /FIX from a DOS prompt or Run box prompt. I also like to run, about once a week, Norton WinDoctor (part of the commercial products Norton Utilities and Norton System Works) as an additional layer of keeping things in tidy shape. If you have Windows 95, considering compacting your Registry every few months using this method. Windows 2000 and XP only rarely seem to require this step and have no native tool for it; however, on rare occasions it is thought to be a good idea to compact a Windows 2000/XP Registry also, especially if there has been a lot of program installation and removal and Windows has started to become unstable. In that case, this method is recommended.

• Always uninstall programs with the Control Panel’s Add/Remove Programs applet when possible. (In Windows Vista, it is renamed Programs & Features.) If an installed program isn’t listed there, see if it has its own uninstall routine, and use that. For 32-bit programs (those made especially for Windows 95 or later), do not just delete the program off the hard drive. (If you’ve already done this, reinstall the program, and then remove it correctly through the Control Panel or its own uninstaller.)

• Get off of the Windows 95/98/ME platform, and onto the NT-based platform of Windows XP or Vista, as soon as you reasonably can. Provided that hardware is adequate to and compatible with the operating system, there’s simply no way to make Windows 9x as stable as its NT-based siblings unless you just aren’t running very much stuff. If long-term stability and reliability are what you want, Windows XP and Vista are where you will find it.

• Rely on Windows Update — but judiciously! Do install all critical updates. Almost always, these provide important security elements or truly critical system patches. Only rarely do they cause new problems (though it does sometimes happen). Do equip yourself to handle any problems they may cause, keep track of what patches you apply when so that, if new problems appear, you can roll back the patches as one step in troubleshooting. Do not let Windows Update give you new device drivers, as a rule. Usually they are way out-of-date compared to the hardware manufacturer’s web site, so you usually will not get the best result.

• Periodically run ScanDisk in Windows 95/98/ME or ChkDsk in Windows 2000 /XP— say, once a month. This isn’t as important in newer versions of Windows as in older versions, but I definitely recommend doing it periodically in Windows 95. Even as early as Windows 98, I began doing this less often — primarily when Windows required it (due to a bad shutdown), but different computers and different usage patterns may need this more often.

• For Windows 95, 98, and ME, set the typical role of your computer to be a network server, provided you have at least 32 MB of RAM. But your computer is not a network server, you say? No matter. All this does is control how Windows handles disk performance and certain memory buffers. The default settings for “Desktop Computer” were created for hardware as it existed in 1995 — and things have changed! (Almost nobody had 32 MB of RAM in 1995. A minimum of 8 MB was still being recommended!) This change may not improve things — but it can’t hurt. And on some computers, it improves performance noticeably. To make this change, right-click on My Computer, and select Properties | Performance | File System | Hard Disk.

• Leave well enough alone! Do not be so compulsive about keeping things clean that you go in and mess with the Registry on your own. Similarly, do not delete files that you neither recognize nor understand just to free up a little disk room. If you need hard drive room that badly, you are long overdue for a new hard drive! My rule of thumb: Acquire more hard drive space if less than 10% of the hard drive’s capacity is free. Furthermore, any major partition with less than the smaller of 200 MB or 10% of its size needs to be made larger, either by repartitioning or by adding a larger drive.

• Floss. Wear sunscreen.

This should give you a good start to keeping your computer system in a spry, perky, healthy condition!

How to perform clean boot process in windows vista

If the computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may prevent you from following these steps. We strongly recommend that you do not use the System Configuration utility to modify the advanced boot options on the computer unless a Microsoft support engineer directs you to do this. Doing this may make the computer unusable.
a.    Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrator rights.
b.    Click Start
, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER to start the System Configuration Utility.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.
c.    On the General tab, click Selective Startup, and then click to clear the Load startup items check box. (The Use Original Boot.ini check box is unavailable.)
d.    On the Services tab, click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box, and then click Disable all.

Note Following this step lets Microsoft Support services continue to run. These services include Networking, Plug and Play, Event Logging, Error Reporting, and other services. If you disable these services, you may permanently delete all restore points. Do not do this if you want to use the System Restore utility together with existing restore points.

e.    Click OK, and then click Restart.

Note: You can go though Out How to Perform boot problems in Windows OS