5 Tips to free up some space on your hard drive

1.Compressing Files (NTFS only):

Select the file(s) or folder(s) you want to compress. Right Click then Goto properties. Then click on “Advanced” button then check “Compress contents to save disk space” and click Ok and then Apply. Then check “Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files” and click Ok. Files and folders that are compressed are shown in blue color.

Note: This feature is available on NTFS file system only. Experimented using Win XP.

2. Setting System Restore to use min. Disk Space:

Go to My Computer Properties by right clicking on My Comp. Icon. Select “System Restore” Tab. Select the drive and then click on “Setting”. If you decrease the disk space use by system restore it will reduce the number of previous restore points. Move the slider to your desire, depending on total disk space of your derive, Set it to “5%” or 1 GB if your single partition is above 18.6GB.

You can turn off the restore option for other drive(s). When it is “on”, when u restore ur system it will erase most of the files (except .doc, .txt etc.) currently in your drive and restores the files u have on that date.

3. Convert unused files to archive:

There are so many files or other data like Setup files, backups, previous records etc. that you don’t use frequently or you haven’t open for a long time. Get an archive utility like Winzip, WinRAR etc. and convert those files to zip, rar or any other format this will give some free space. Or simply Right click on explorer create new> Compressed (zipped) folder.

4. Uninstall unnecessary Windows components:

Goto Control Panel> Add or remove Programs> Add/Remove Windows Component. Following are some components you can uninstall. Select the comp. and click on “Details” button and uncheck the following items.

Accessories and Utilities> Games

Fax Services

IIS (for web developers)

Management and Monitoring Tools

MSN Explorer (If u use any other explorer remove it)

5. Delete Temporary Files:

To delete Temporary Internet Files:

Go to Control Panel> Internet Options. Click on Delete files under temporary internet files also check “Delete all offline content” and click Ok.

To change the amount of disk space to use click on “Setting”. Move the slider to 250 or 300 MB.

Note: Decreasing the space may decrease the time to load pages or sometimes slow down Internet Explorer if u are viewing so many pages.

To delete Windows Temp files:

Go to folder “LocalDrive:\Documents and Settings\”your_username”\Local Settings\Temp” Select all files by pressing Ctrl+A on your keyboard and delete.

Note: These files are created by a program or setup which is running to store information temporarily and can be deleted safely if that program is not running.

Clearing “My Recent Documents” folder in Start Panel:

Right click on taskbar, go to properties >Start menu > click on “customize> Advance (tab) . Then click on button “Clear List” also uncheck “List my most recent documents”.

Run Disk Cleanup Wizard:

Go to Start> Programs> Accessories> System tools> Disk Cleanup. Select the drive u want to clean. Then check all the items and click Ok.

To Get few more KB:

These are some tips that will help to free some Kbs but these are not recommended. They might effect on your system stability.

1. Decreasing Page file size:

Right click on My Computer> Properties> Advanced> Performance Option> Click “Change” Virtual Memory button. Set the values of your choice or select “System Managed size (recommended)”.

Tip: Set min size for drive on which your windows is installed and set max.(recommended) size for other drive. This will increase systems performance.

2. Delete folder.htt (for win98 or previous versions):

Goto start menu> Search> files and folders. Then type the file name “folder.htt” also make sure that “show hidden files and folder” is checked in folder option. After the search is complete select all the files and delete them.

Note: folder.htt files contains your folder setting & information and deleting them will reset all folder setting to default (but not harm your data). They are again created whenever a folder is modified so u have to delete them regularly.

3. Delete .log files:

Start a new search by typing .log as a file name. After the search is complete select all the files and delete.

Note: .log files are created by programs to log information, file paths or the changes that have been made on your pc. They are created automatically whenever you install a program or perform any task like scanning pc etc. You may need it in future if u are looking for a certain type of file or info. Deleting them will not harm your pc.

4. Decrease max. Size of Recycle bin:

Right click on Recycle bin> Properties. Then move the slider of max file size to 5%.

Note: If u decrease the max recycle bin size then large file and folders that exceed this size will not be send to recycle been and it will ask to permanently delete them.

5. Delete unused common files:

Delete the folder “LocalDrive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery”.

5. Delete Application files no longer desired:

Even after uninstalling programs some of files are left on your hard disk. These files contains user preference/setting and can be safely delete.

Go to “LocalDrive:\Documents and Settings\”your_username”\Application Data”.

And “LocalDrive:\Documents and Settings\”your_username\Local Settings\Application Data. Then delete the folders represented by the name of software that you have uninstalled. Similarly do the same method for other Application folders of each users.

And the most important tip is that uninstall software that you don’t use rarely.

Restart your computer to take effect and see how much space you gain. I got nearly 4GB free when I first did it.

Note: These Tips are experimented on WinXP. If your PC is having any proplem after applying all the above then we are not responsible for it.

Thanks for reading!

Einstein caught on color camera

I got this picture from my grand father’s photo album. He was a fellowman of Great Albert Einstein.

He took this picture from the first color camera of the work made by a famous scientist, and this was awarded as the first color picture of the world.

Sorry i forgot to add that the name Hasan that he is writing on green board is my grand father’s name.

Empty Prefetch on your system to gain speed

The prefetch folder is used to help speed up the loading of programs; XP will load programs it thinks you need before you ask for them yourself. If XP (or 2003) tries to prefetch applications you don’t regularly use, then you may be wasting memory. In this article, we look at how to speed up performance by emptying the little known prefetch folder and allowing XP to start the prefetch determination and archiving process over again.

The prefetch folder resides on your local hard disk, under the Windows folder.

C:windowsprefetch

Use above if u have windows install on your hard disk partition C:, the prefetch folder is located in the windows directory.

The prefetch folder is used for speeding up your system. The way it does this is by doing the following:

• Windows XP is configured to prefetch application and program components so that when you load them to memory; it appears to be very quick.
• When XP does this the first time, it winds up copying portions of the program to the prefetch area of your local disk.
• When XP boots up, XP will prefetch portions of the files you use the most.
• XP loads all associated files, libraries, and pointers necessary to run the program in advance, the preloaded subset makes your system appear quicker.

Prefetch when unattended can also slow down your system. This is because over time

• XP will retain a copy of a portion of a program in the prefetch folder even if you only use it one time, which is not good. Since you may not use the program again, you may impact the performance of your system by having portions of a program you do not use loaded in your system’s memory.
• XP systems with very low hardware resources (such as memory and hard disk space) will definitely be affected by an over-bloated prefetch folder.

To view the contents of your prefetch folder, you only need to open to it. To delete all files press Ctrl + A and then Del or you can select files that you want to delete then press Del. However XP will go back through the same process and prefetch what you need.
Note:  The layout.ini file can also be deleted without a problem.

You shouldn’t delete these files often because then your system is constantly taxed in creating file and then you deleting them. This of course will put a strain on your hard disk and leave you needing another defrag.

To change settings for your Prefetch folder, you may need to take a trip into the system’s Registry. You can do this with Regedit.

Start => Run => type Regedit => Enter

Now that you are in the Registry, you can change the way that Prefetch behaves by making a change in the registry. This is helpful when you want to alter Prefetch or disable Prefetch completely. Low resource (memory, hard disk space, etc) systems may need this functionality disabled to get the system to run more efficiently.

When the Registry Editor Dialog box opens, navigate to this value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters

In the right side pane, look for the key named EnablePrefetcher. The value of this key represents how Prefetch will operate.

Values you can choose from include:

0: Disable

1: Application Launch Prefetch

2: Boot Prefetch

3: Prefetch everything

Simply type the number in that you want (keep all other settings the same) and click OK. Rebooting the system will give you the new Prefetch setting.

Automatic Window refresh

1. Goto Start/Run/Type “Regedit”
   
2. Then goto “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlUpdat”.
3. Find Value : UpdateMode, Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value), Value Data: default = 1.
   Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, named “UpdateMode” and set it to equal “0″ for faster updates. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.
   

Some registry tweaks that can boost your desktop

If your PC is taking so much time to open a menu or explorer. Then these tweaks might be useful to you.

1. Goto Start>Run> type “Regedit”
2. Goto [HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop]
3. Find the following keys and change their values as given:
   “ForegroundLockTimeout”=dword:00000000
   “HungAppTimeout”=”4000″
   “MenuShowDelay”=”200″
   (This will increase your menu speed when u click on it)
   “WaitToKillAppTimeout”=”5000″
4. Then Goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl]
   Change the following
   “WaitToKillServiceTimeout”=”5000″

Note: Befor editing these keys note backup your registry or note down the default values so u can change them if they are causing any problem.