free advice

Reboot means restart - this basically clears out your memory.

Aha. Another general question then.Computers tend to slow down with time (any ones I've had at work for a few years at least - all Windows based) Why is this and what can be done to prevent/cure? I know about defragementing hard drives (if that's still done these days) but that doesn't cure general operating slowdown

Leave your computer on all the time. Your power supply will last longer and so will your hard drive.

It's because of the nature of windows and it's poor design overall. You will notice this does not happen with *nix operating systems such as Unix, Linux and Mac OS/X.If you can afford it, I would recommend that everyone here who is not very computer saavy consider swtiching to a Macintosh. It's a much easier to use, more powerful and easier to maintain.If you want to try linux I recommend Ubuntu. Once you get Ubuntu setup it basically takes care of itself.If you really want to learn about computers than Linux is a great place to start.

Is it possible to at some point, too wipe your computer of everything (after saving the files you want) and reinstalling everything and starting again at original performance speed. I know someone at microsoft so if it was only MS software that was needed I can get it for next to nothingUnfortunately I don't have time to get into the intricacies. There was a period in college when we did some basic computing and I found the principles and power of it really fascinating. But now its simply a matter of using the technology. This age is too awash with stuff to get interested in.

This is an automatic consequence of Parkinson's law for software, which states: This problem is particularly obvious in video game systems such as MS Windows, where much of the resources are used for providing visual eye candy instead of doing useful computation.

Well there is your problem.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

One of the members here (perhaps you? ) pointed me to this site that has great explanations of things in easy to understand formats. I keep it bookmarked.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Iano....First of all... yes if you have the install CD and back up your files first you can most certainly format your harddrive and reinstall your O/S. For the windows installs I still have I do that about once a year (it's sad how much faster it runs after you do it).What I would recommend is that you make 2 partitions on your hard drive when you reinstall the O/S. Make a partition just for you personal data (maybe 10-20 gigs or so). That way if you ever have to reinstall the O/S again your data will be just fine.Alternatively.. for anyone who has more than one computer, just run a server and keep ALL your data on it. I have a 500 GB server (thinking about going to 2 TB RAID) and I keep ALL my data on it (about 360 GB right now). I also back it up every couple of months. What this means is that I can blow away any other computer I have at any time and it doesn't matter because all my data is on the server.In any case, like I said before.... if you aren't a computer expert and just want to get work done... buy a MAC. Macs are much easier to use and are much higher quality (macs easily last 5+ years)

Agree totally Jazzns... I'm not a fan of Redhat at all. Probably one of the worst Linux distros I've used.Now Debian... that is an elegant and beautiful piece of work....(Debian is IMO by far the best linux distro.. and there are a lot of distros based on debian like Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mepis, Knoppix, etc)

Cheers SNC,I'll have to delve a bit to figure the details - but although not a whizz I am a risk taker! I take it an install cd is something my Microsoft friend can get for me - none came with the computer ...er, I've got about 10 Word documents at the moment Wouldn't mine last that? I've had computers in work (a compaq and a Dell) which have been used a fair amount and have been going fine at 5 years - except that they are dog slow by then. Because it happens gradually though you don't notice it as much. I was hoping that this reloading of O/S would keep it fresh software-wise and that the hardware (the one at home is a Compaq??) would last 5 years at least.Maybe thats why the all-inclusive 3 year warrantly which I didn't get cost half the price of the computer itself But like I say, I'm a computer dummyThis message has been edited by iano, 07-Apr-2006 01:30 AM

bah, i would go with freebsd more than linux, ubuntu is better than redhat or the others, considering the dependicy hell you can go through, want to add a new program? download the program, the new version of a compiler and all kinds of stufffreebsd is nice, its stable, has a standard hiarchy, and robust drivers (fewer than say linux, but do you need a driver for a card that no one uses?) plus the kernel doesn't get an overhaul every update - 2.6.0 anyone?as for windows yes the design is not very good, the memory useage is the worst, but hell if you want to produce software for nearly everyone you go with what they have

I'm sure its simple enough if you know how - which I don'tI set up a number of user accounts a while back (in MS XP). If I go to shut down after only logging on to the main account (the adminstrator account) then everything is fine. The computer shuts down in 30 secs or soIf either of the two other accounts is logged on (even if a programme isn't running) the the system locks or takes ages to shut down.The problem seems to in the user accounts. If I go to one of those and switch user then all is fairly fine. If I try to log off however I get a grey mini-window up with C APP as a title and and "ending programme" activity meter-like bar which progresses to about 50% and dissappears only to leave the plain desktop showing and a locked computer (or one that takes ages to log off). I understand this C APP to have something to do with Norton Internet Security which is what I have running on the pcIs it a fouled registry or something?Help appreciated.

I'm a debian man myself (which means that I of course like ubuntu also... but I still usually just build pcs with debian)

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