Windows Tools, Help & Guides

The information displayed when a Windows system starts or shuts down is too simple. This makes very complicated to find the sources of a problem. For example, on a normal shut down you will see just two messages, Logging off:

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If you are on the move a lot, using your computer on many different networks, chances are that, after a while your computer has a pile of unused networks settings stored on your system.

Windows stores these settings so you don’t have to go around keeping track of each and every network you connect to–making it easier to connect to your preferred networks without typing in security keys and passwords every time.

Windows will remember each network you connect to and over time you might find a long list of networks that you no longer use or have the need for. How do you remove the unwanted ones ?

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Windows Forums member, shoby, asked the following question in our suggestion box:

I would like to see a review about Ready Boost in Windows 7.
Does it really help you out when you need some extra performance or does it just look like it helps you out ?

It surely can’t be like you actually went out and bought some RAM, but how good is Ready Boost actually.
Is it gonna help me out with the my daily tasks/multitasking.
TIA.

This guide answers these questions and offer suggestions to help you get the most out or ReadyBoost or the most out of the money you’d spend on a flash drive with which to use ReadyBoost. Specifically, we’ll cover the following:

• What is ReadyBoost?
• Does ReadyBoost really work?
• What are the requirements for ReadyBoost?
• What security risks does ReadyBoost pose?
• What alternatives are there to ReadyBoost?

If you want to learn how to use ReadyBoost, see this guide: Speed up Windows with ReadyBoost.

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New to using the command prompt? Check out the Windows Command Prompt Beginner’s Guide

Earlier today, we looked at how to launch the command prompt in Windows and how to run it with elevated permissions as an administrator. Now, we’ll learn how to customize the user interface of the command prompt. Specifically, we’ll learn the following:

• How to Customize the Command Prompt
• How to run a Transparent Command Prompt

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On a brand new system (freshly installed) Burning CD’s and DVD’s in Windows 7 is a very fast and enjoyable experience. Then something happens, you suddenly experience that Windows 7 takes for ever to complete a burn session. Some have experienced it taking up to 2,5 hours to complete a DVD. Which would mean a transfer rate of about 370 kb pr. second. where about 4,500 kb pr. second  (15-17 minutes) is considered slow.

What happened ?

There can be a number of reasons, but what you experience might be that your computer (or the device controller) has switched from DMA-Mode to PIO-mode.

Say what?

I’d thought you’d say that. Before we get into how to fix it – let’s look into what DMA and PIO are. Read the rest of this entry »

New to using the command prompt? Check out the Windows Command Prompt Beginner’s Guide

Many guides on this site require you to run commands on the command prompt. This guide is written to show you how to open the command prompt. Specifically, in this guide, you’ll learn:

• How to open a command prompt in Windows.
• How to run the command prompt as an Administrator.

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