INTERNET EXPLORER 8 AND INTERNET SPEED

[swiss]

Internet speed is an arcane science:

[highlander]

I love Penny Arcade

[rapport25]

My computer is running sh*t slow. How can I increase the speed for free?

Thanks Rappy

[mjb]

My computer is running sh*t slow. How can I increase the speed for free?

Reformat and reinstall Windows... or bribe a PC World security guy to turn the RFID alarm off and turn a blind eye

[highlander]

1) Click "Start" and go to "Run"
2) Type "%temp%" and click "OK"
3) Delete everything in the folder that comes up (the address will be something like "C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\temp" or "C:\Windows\Temp")

There will probably be a lot of crap in there. Some things in there are in use by the OS, and won't delete, but you'll be able to clear out about 99% of all the crap.

If you're not brave enough for that, try this:

1) Click "Start" and go to "My Computer"
2) Right-click on your C: drive and select "Properties"
3) Click the "Disk Cleanup" button (to the right of the pie chart)
4) Tick all the boxes in the list EXCEPT for "Compress Old Files" (see below)
5) Click "OK" to begin cleaning up

This will make Windows clean out a lot of old crap. It's not as effective as doing it manually, but it does help a bit.

The Compress Old Files option does save an impressive amount of space sometimes, but it means that Windows needs to uncompress the older files on your hard drive every time you need to access them. Sounds OK, but remember - when your antivirus scanner does a scan, it needs to read every file on your hard drive and test it for viruses. If it needs to uncompress every compressed file on your hard disk, it's going to take forever and a day to complete, slowing your PC down (as file compression is CPU-and-memory-intensive), and thrashing your hard drive (which shortens its life). It's just not worthwhile in the long run.

[steve_earwig]

My computer is running sh*t slow. How can I increase the speed for free?

Did you mean your computer or your Internet?

[mjb]

Did you mean your computer or your Internet?

...or your Internet connection
...or your access to the Internet

drives me nuts when people say "my internet", "your internet", "get the internet on your phone"... argh!


In other news, one of me laptops started making truly evil hard disk death noises last night. Just off to overclockers now to get a new one, and backing up before I go. I've network booted the laptop to FreeBSD (diskless NFS root FS) and I'm just sending an image of the hdd to the fileserver using dd|gzip over nfs...

The interesting point will be when I boot back into XP with the new hdd. XP should survive the hibernate/resume, but will I be able to use partition magic to resize a partition to fill the disk? My money's on "maybe"

[steve_earwig]

I'm sorry but I'm mildly offended by that. Or should I say I find myself in a state of mind that is towards the offended end of the spectrum, rather than my usual "happy-go-lucky" condition?

[mjb]

sorry mate, i'm not feeling too great at the moment (house moving stress, bad back, stinking cold, dead laptop...) and that tends to lead to a wee bit of grumpiness i thought my post came out as informational, but i guess i got it a bit wrong. sorry

[steve_earwig]

And, so far today: a planned morning of shopping for plants and stuff was canceled 'cos someone's off sick and my other half has to cover; the radio in my D9 wouldn't turn off - push the button, it goes off, release the button, it comes straight back on again - so after about 18 tries I gave it a thump and now the buttons on that side of the radio don't work, including the on/off volume control; while I was driving my Mrs to work the indicators decided to indicate left without any input from me and are making some right horrible noises when I turn the wheel; my ancient Flymo wouldn't start and while I was fiddling with it I broke the air filter box (no spares this side of Kent)... Sorry for biting your head off Matt

[mjb]

(no spares this side of Kent)

They've moved France?

I was supposed to be clearing the garden today. No chance in this weather so I'll probably just fill a few more boxes with crap

[Doggy]

"Just yer average bank hol then", said Doggy, (who was skiving rather than getting on wiv 'is college work).

[steve_earwig]

(no spares this side of Kent)

They've moved France?

Nope, I moved to Croatia and own the only Flymo in this part of Yurup. Anyway, hooray for epoxy

the radio in my D9 wouldn't turn off - push the button, it goes off, release the button, it comes straight back on again - so after about 18 tries I gave it a thump and now the buttons on that side of the radio don't work, including the on/off volume control

I brokedid it I just took it to bits and it's cracked across the circuit board (of course). I don't think I'd get anywhere trying to solder it as I can hardly see some of the conductors, let alone piece them out with wire. Anyone got a broken one with a decent front panel circuit board? (PU-2473a(J)) I think I've sussed out why it was playing up in the first place, looks like it's been wet

[mjb]

Nope, I moved to Croatia and own the only Flymo in this part of Yurup. Anyway, hooray for epoxy

D'oh! I missed the Flymo bit

[swiss]

My computer is running sh*t slow. How can I increase the speed for free?

Have you tried any of the suggestions on page 1?