Desktop Buying Guide

So many choices and features to choose from, what is the best for you? Buying a desktop computer is highly dependent on the following 2 questions.
1. What is the purpose/usage of the PC?
2. What is your budget?

After answering those questions, type of computer/desktop is next. Below are the different types of Desktop computers with its advantages and disadvantages.

Compact PCs
This is the smallest form factor in desktop family.










Advantages:
1. Energy-efficiency
2. Quite operation
3. Space saving package
Disadvantages:
1. Limited computing power
2. Limited graphical feature. It’s highly dependent on its integrated GPU. Anything more complicated that flash game will be unplayable.
3. Limited connectivity option

All-in-One Desktops
This is new to entry in Desktop family. This type of PC is self-contained that all of its components are mounted behind its display.












Advantages:
1. Energy-efficiency
2. Quite operation
3. Space saving package
4. Touchscreen with multitouch gestures worked into Windows 7
5. Wireless mouse and keyboard
6. WiFi support
7. Out of the box plug and play setup
8. Big display
Disadvantages:
1. Expensive
2. May be harder to troubleshoot like laptop

Budget PCs
Use standard desktop components with minimum requirements.
Advantages:
1. Inexpensive
2. Good space for expandability
Disadvantages:
1. Being a budget PC it offers less computing power.
2. Low graphics support.

Mainstream PCs
Its like a budget PCs having more features and computing power.
Advantages:
1. More computing power than budget PC
2. Good for everyday ordinary game and office applications
Disadvantages:
1. More expensive than budget PC.











Performance PCs
Getting the highest end of the spectrum.
Advantages:
1. Best in performance
2. Equipped for demanding computing.
Disadvantages:
1. Expensive

Resources:
Windows Driver

Windows sigverif for System Integrity

Unsigned Windows Driver may hurt your system, yeah! Because it did not come from your vendor so warranty is out.

Windows sigverif (File Signature Verification) is a tool to verify/maintain the integrity of the system, critical files have been digitally signed so that any changes to these files can be quickly detected.

In simple words it will check what files are unsigned and report it to you for your action.

How to use it:
1. Go to Start >> Run type in sigverif hit enter. Sigverif windows will open.












2. Click “Start” to start scanning.

3. Unsigned files will be reported back to you. Mine are windows drivers.















Go ahead and verify your files.

SFC – System File Checker

Scan all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.

Scan Options

/SCANNOW – Scan all protected system files immediately.

/SCANONCE – Scan all protected system files once at the next boot.

/SCANBOOT – Scan all protected system files at every boot.

/REVERT – Return scan to default setting.

/PIRGECACHE – Purges the files cache.

/CACHESIZE=x – Sets the file cache size.

/? – Display help at the command prompt.

How and when to use it?

After update that went wrong.

Windows update sometimes causes corruption of system files, yes it is!

After virus infection

No doubt it can ruin every file including system files.

After installing/updating windows driver that causes system error.

Digitally signed files/application are allowed to replace/update system files but this also causes system file corruption

Or simply everytime a system file has been corrupted.

This tool can be executed everytime you want so if you feel you need it then use it.

PC Hangs What To Do?

If you’re PC, System Hang is not new to you! Yeah! it’s very common on Windows. So what do you do?

1. Reboot your PC?
2. Break the monitor with your head because of the unsaved documents?
3. Wait forever?
4. “Esc” key on your keyboard as fast as you can?
5. OR open“Windows Task Manager”?

My answer is number 5.

Microsoft define "Windows Task Manager" as:

“Task Manager provides information about programs and processes running on your computer. It also displays the most commonly used performance measures for processes.

You can use Task Manager to monitor key indicators of your computer's performance. You can see the status of the programs that are running and end programs that have stopped responding. You can also assess the activity of running processes using as many as fifteen parameters, and see graphs and data on CPU and memory usage.

In addition, if you are connected to a network, you can view network status and see how your network is functioning.

If you have more than one user connected to your computer, you can see who is connected, what they are working on, and you can send them a message”

Every time I get hang (not responding) application I immediately

1. hit “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “Esc” key which is the shortcut key for “Task Manager”
2. go to “Process” tab and sort the “Mem Usage” column and see which has the highest memory usage.
3. click to select the suspected application (culprit).
4. finally click “End Process” button to kill the culprit and see who it goes away

Some causes of PC Hangs:

1. Bad HDD, developing bad sector.
2. Virus or Malware
3. Windows Driver issue, incompatible drivers is also know cause of PC hangs specially for gaming.

Lets kill unresponsive applications!

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

I got a very nice resource from Microsoft.com really informative and effective. Read on...

"This article describes how to recover a Windows XP system that does not start because of corruption in the registry. This procedure does not guarantee full recovery of the system to a previous state; however, you should be able to recover data when you use this procedure.

Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your computer has an OEM-installed operating system. The system hive on OEM installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist previously. If you use the procedure that is described in this article, you may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the original registry hives.

You can repair a corrupted registry in Windows XP. Corrupted registry files can cause a variety of different error messages. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base for articles about error messages that are related to registry issues.

This article assumes that typical recovery methods have failed and access to the system is not available except by using Recovery Console. If an Automatic System Recovery (ASR) backup exists, it is the preferred method for recovery. Microsoft recommends that you use the ASR backup before you try the procedure described in this article.

Note Make sure to replace all five of the registry hives. If you only replace a single hive or two, this can cause potential issues because software and hardware may have settings in multiple" locations in the registry.

Continue learning here >> Microsoft

Boost Your Computer – Speed it UP!

So I love tweaking my computer to speed it up.
Windows default facilities that helps speed computer are the following:

1. Services.msc – this the command to launch Windows Services where you can disable and enable services.
2. Cleanmgr – command to launch Windows Disk Cleaner where you can delete temporary files and other unnecessary files on your computer.
3. Msconfig – command for Windows System Configuration Utility where you can disable programs that loads during start up.
4. Disk Manger – where you can defrag your hard drive for faster accessibility of your files.
5. Check disk or chckdsk /f /r – for checking/repairing hard drive surface/bad sectors. It actually not repairs it but reallocate all files saved on possible broken sector of the drive.
6. Updating driver will also help.

These are all windows default facility for cleaning your computer and drive which will boost it. But do you know that there are 3rd party facilities to do all of these? Drum roll please….. Ccleaner is my favorite tool to do most of computer booster. For windows update here is my favorite tool: Download Windows Driver

Windows Drivers Published in PCPitstop.com

Have you upgraded to Windows 7 and you found out that some of your device drivers are not working in this version? If yes then we are on the same shoes.

OK my problem is my Realtek Audio driver. I spent couple of hours in search for its driver but no joy until recently I found that PCPitsstop.com compiled a list of newly released device drivers that works on Windows 7. I got mine there. check it >> PCPitstop

Realtek
Intel
Marvel
ATI

are device manufacturers that posted their new drivers.

OK this is good news but what if the drive you need is not listed there? Then that will be the time you need to go for a 3rd party windows driver searcher/downloader/Installer. Yes! a program that will search, download and install the driver you need. Is that simple? Here is my tested/trusted choice: Windows Device Driver