Computer Info –
This Week’s Meeting
We will take a look at RegCleaner – a registry editor. Discuss items from the handouts. And bring your questions along.
The next meeting will be August 6th.
Word – a Useful Tip?
Here is a way to get rid of a document that is listed on the FILE menu. Hold down CTRL and ALT and then press the hyphen key. Your cursor will appear as a huge minus sign. Open the FILE menu, put the huge minus sign on the document that you would like removed and click on it. This will delete that document from being listed on the Word FILE menu – but it does not delete it from your computer.
Memory
Installing more memory (or RAM) is the single best thing to speed up a computer. Microsoft says that Windows 98 or Windows ME only requires 64 megabytes of RAM – but raising that to 128 MB is very worthwhile. Many inexpensive new Windows XP computers come with 128 MB or RAM. Double that and the overall system performance can increase as much as 25 percent.
Another benefit to more RAM is speedier Web browsing. Files from the Internet are placed into the computer’s RAM. If there is not enough RAM in the system, then files are saved on the hard drive. Retrieving data from the hard drive is much slower than RAM.
Make sure you buy the right RAM for your computer. Memory modules are not interchangeable. As long as you know your computer’s make and model, you can buy online at Crucial Technology
( http://www.crucial.com ) or Kingston Technology ( http://www.kingston.com ).
RootsMagic
(Article from Smart Computing – August, 2003)
Family Origins was one of the most popular genealogy programs, but after the software changed hands many times, its original developer, Bruce Buzbee of FormalSoft, wrote a new genealogy software – RootsMagic.
RootsMagic is arguably the best genealogy program we’ve seen.
Registry
Each time Windows loads, it references the Registry, which is an enormous database containing settings for all of the applications and hardware installed on the computer, including Windows itself. As you install more hardware and software on your computer, the Registry grows, and many times entries remain even when you have removed or uninstalled the programs or devices that created them.
A bloated Registry increases boot times and as the Registry grows, the chance that it will become corrupt and prevent Windows from booting increases dramatically.
Cleaning the Registry by hand is a task that even professionals avoid, simply because there are far too many entries to sift through. It is recommended that you install a good third party Registry cleaning utility that scans for outdated or inaccurate entries and deletes them automatically. A good program will backup the Registry in case something is deleted accidentally that interferes with Windows operation.
A good program is RegCleaner, which is available as a free download ( http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml ) and works with Windows 98 – ME and XP.
Registry Editor
Where do you find the Registry Editor? You won’t find a shortcut on the desktop for it, you won't find a launch icon and it won’t be in the Start menu. Microsoft intentionally omitted a Registry Editor launch icon to prevent curious users from opening the editor and haphazardly making potentially disastrous modifications.
To run the Registry Editor, first choose RUN from the Start menu. When the RUN dialog box opens, type regedit in the Open text box, and click OK. The Registry Editor will now open.
You will probably notice that the Registry Editor window looks very similar to a Windows Explorer window. This design makes it easy to understand the Registry Editor interface. The left pane displays a navigation tree of folders, called Registry keys. Just as folders can be nested, so too can Registry keys. The right pane displays the contents of the selected key (excluding any subkeys). Instead of storing files, as folders do, Registry keys store values. The values appear in the Name column, and what you see in the Data column are the settings for each value.
The Windows Registry is a database where all the information about your computer is stored. Everything from colors, installed applications, or changes you make in Control Panel, are included in the Registry database.
IT IS POSSIBLE TO BREAK WINDOWS BY CHANGING THE REGISTRY. ANY CHANGES YOU MAKE SHOULD BE DONE WITH CAUTION!! If you take the simple step of making a backup copy of the Registry, you will virtually eliminate the possibility of disaster.
The web site -- Registry for Newbies -- offers a good explanation of what the registry is and how to find your way around in it.
http://newbieclub.com/rfncopy/
SATA
Most hard drives today are based on IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics); also known as ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment). But there is a new technology called SATA (Serial ATA) which offers big improvements over its IDE.
One difference between the two is the number of devices supported and the data transfer method. IDE supports two devices per channel and transfers more than 1 bit of information at a time. SATA supports only one device per channel and transfers 1 bit of information at a time. This may sound like a disadvantage for SATA, but a serial interface is actually a faster and more reliable form of transferring data. USB, FireWire and Ethernet are examples that use serial interfaces as their method of transferring data. SATA devices have access to the full bandwidth at any given time.
SATA cables have a maximum length of 40 inches while IDE cables max out at 18 inches. SATA cables have 7 wires and are very thin and flexible while IDE cables have 40 wires and are highly susceptible to damage. A simple bend in a IDE cable (known as ribbon cable) can render it unusable.
If you buy a SATA drive – it is backwards compatible. SATA devices are also hot swappable, meaning that you can remove a SATA device and replace it with a similar device while your computer is running.
Need a Boot Disk
At this site, you can obtain a startup disk for any of the Windows or DOS operating systems. The files are free, but he would like you to send him $3.00 to help keep the site going.