Registry Cleaner, sans BS

September 29, 2011 --- Miles V.

Awhile back, I wrote a post to explain what registry cleaning software is good for while simultaneously railing against most of the genre for its invasive, irritating, and even debilitating behavior. The trouble is that while there are plenty of free registry cleaners out there, they still need to make a buck for their developers.  Most are rigged with all sorts of methods for getting you to buy the full version, or just throwing advertising … Read more →

Posted in Software | Tagged registry, tune-up, Windows | Leave a comment

Fixing Duplicates and Typos in Outlook

September 2, 2011 --- Miles V.

Two very nifty (and free) tools I’ve recently become aware of for eliminating headaches in Outlook:  ODIR, and NK2Edit. ODIR is the Outlook Dupliate Items Remover, and as the name implies, it can automatically remove duplicate messages and contacts from Outlook.  This is great for recovering from glitches in which messages are downloaded twice, or contacts are accidentally imported multiple times.  Compatible with all versions of Outlook since 2000. NK2Edit is a tool for editing…. … Read more →

Posted in Software | Tagged email, Microsoft, outlook | Leave a comment

Proper Laptop Handling

July 24, 2011 --- Miles V.

I want to tell everyone a little bit about how to physically treat a laptop or a tablet, or any other kind of portable device they value.  I feel a little weird making this post, because everything I’m about to say feels like common sense that won’t be news to anyone.  Still, I am all too often shocked by the way I see users abusing their gadgets, and having observed easily twice as much hardware … Read more →

Posted in Hardware | Tagged laptop, tablet | 1 Comment

Restore Windows Update Services

May 17, 2011 --- Miles V.

I’ve encountered a lot of systems lately who, after being cleaned of a virus infection, are missing their Automatic Updates and/or BITS services.  Microsoft has a handy article on how to reinstall these services if they disappear.  These instructions are intended for XP, but I believe they will also work in Vista.  They’ve saved the day for me on multiple occasions. If you don’t feel like parsing the entire article, the two magic commands, to … Read more →

Posted in How To, Software | Tagged repair, virus, Windows | 1 Comment

How Much Bandwidth do I Need?

May 4, 2011 --- Miles V.

When you’re shopping around for internet service, an internet provider (i.e. AT&T, Comcast) will typically offer many differently-priced service plans depending on how much bandwidth they will provide.  This equates almost directly with connection speed and load times, so it’s important to have enough bandwidth to accommodate your browsing habits. There are two important metrics in bandwidth allocation (measured in Megabits per second or Mbps): upstream and downstream, denoting the speed of outbound and inbound … Read more →

Posted in Internet, Network | 12 Comments