Cleaning Your Operating System Out ( Degunking Windows ) February 16, 2006

For computer users.....

This event is sponsored by NYPC, a Computer User Group In NYC....(www.nypc.org)

Thursday February 16th 2006

Ps 41 116 West 11th Street

Just West of 6th Avenue

The Meeting is Free and Open to All

Doors open at 6:00 PM

Announcements 6:30 PM

Presentation at 7:00 PM

You may not have ghosts in your computers but virtually everyone has acquired computer gunk and our panel of experienced Gunk Busters will be here to help.

At some point just about everyone has notice that their computer starts acting a little weird. Have noticed that your computer seems to be running slower? Or it may be slow to react to your commands. Your favorite applications don't seem the same, and some programs may hang or even crash your computer, and when you surf the web those pop up ads seem like a swarm of gnats.

In computer time the good old days can be last month, or if you are really unlucky last week. Just visiting a few innocuous web sites can load up your cookie jar. There are good cookies and bad, you may find it helpful that Amazon recognizes your return and saves you retyping your basic info but you may have hundreds of useless cookies that at best just slow things down and at worse phone home with personal info you would rather keep personal. The good news is that there are various programs that really help in managing and deleting cookies. More good news, some very good ones are free or low cost.

Then there is spyware that many consider far worse than viruses. This stuff can really gunk up you computer and or you life. This has become a big topic and a rapidly expanding problem our Gunk Busters will address.

Well let's take a step back and look at that new Dell or HP you just bought. It probably came with slew of programs that you will never use. They were put there so the maker could brag about how much free stuff they were giving you. Some gift! If you don't use them, unnecessary programs just gunk up the works, gobble storage space and slow you down. One of our Gunk Busters, Michael Horowitz, teaches a whole course on cleaning and improving your brand new computer. ?So You Bought a New Computer, Now What.? You can look at Michael's site for more info.

http://www.michaelhorowitz.com/

As time goes on, even if you are careful, stuff accumulates that you may not need. Do you still have drivers for printers that died, or special programs you never used that came with a digital camera you lost? These may be still be in your start up program. Go have another cup of coffee while your computer boots up. Then there are temp files that should have be removed automatically but survived. Have you noticed that very often in life nothing lasts like the temporary?

A recent popular book ?Degunking Windows? from Paraglyph Press includes many good and useful procedures. Many of which you probably know, but when was the last time you defragged?

Some of our Gunk Busters think this book is too simple, but hey these guys are Nerd's Nerds. Our panel will share their favorite Tips, Tricks and Traps and you get to ask questions.

Aren't you glad you belong to NYPC?

And if you are not a member yet hopefully this Free meeting will convince you to join.