Windows Tools, Help & Guides

If you share your PC with others or let friends use it when they come to visit, you may find settings changed, files deleted, programs installed etc. when you next use it. With previous versions of Windows, I’ve used Windows Steady State, which provided a mode to allow access without setting complicated policies to protect your settings. Thankfully with Windows 7, Microsoft has made this level of protection much more readily accessible. Learn, in this guide how to set up a Guest account—available in all Windows 7 and 8 versions—for infrequent users of your PC.

Please note two things before getting started:

1. You should not use a guest account if you have parental controls set on your children’s accounts
2. You cannot use Guest mode in an Active Directory environment
   In other words, you probably wont be able to add a guest account if you use company hardware

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If you store photos on your home PC and don’t back them up, I really recommend you do. Hard drives fail all the time yet I still get many emails and PMs asking for help with data recovery. Even if you use an online backup solution, I still recommend taking an inexpensive local backup on optical media periodically.

I have my photos synced on two hard drives at home, on a remote server (RAID 10), and with a third-party storage provider. I’m still paranoid about losing my life’s memories in photos so I like to take a snapshot of my photo data every two years. By making a biannual backup, you’ll always have 3-5 viable sets of discs (they don’t last forever) with your important files—should you ever lose or overwrite them. Hopefully this guide is helpful and gives you something to do with the remaining 88 of the 100 DVDs you purchased on sale three years ago…

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By Sandro Villinger, Technical Product Consultant, TuneUp

The imminent release of Windows 8 has us all on the edge of our seats, and wondering how big the performance and power enhancements will be. Will the new operating system actually live up to its hype?

Test scenario: 150 programs. 2 months

In conducting preliminary benchmarks, we found that Windows 8 managed to beat Windows 7 in the performance department in almost every discipline. With our interest peaked, we decided to take our tests one step further to identify how the installation of third-party applications, or crapware, affect the new operating system’s performance. To do this, we added 150 programs [Figure 1] to our solid 2009 Core 2 Duo with 3 GHz, 4 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD drive using the RTM version of Windows 8, and measured the impact on resource usage, boot time, application launch speed and battery life, among other areas, over a two-month period. So, how did Windows 8 fare under the stress of the 150 programs?  Let’s check it out!

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If you’re using an SSD, there are a few things you can do to extend its life. One of the things you can do is move the search index cache.

The Search Index I/O activity can take a considerable toll on your system drive by keeping it busy. If you have an SSD, this may reduce its life. By moving the index to a separate drive, you can increase overall performance of your PC (more noticeable under load) and preserve the life of your SSD.

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Recently, we encouraged you to set (or change) a password for your Windows account. If you lose your password, you face the reality of losing access to your files and settings. In this guide, we show you how to create a password reset disk for your PC so, in a bind, you have an easy backdoor into your PC.

Note: you can also reset or crack the password; however, a little preparation will save you the hassle of doing this.

Before you begin this guide, you’ll need the following:

• A USB drive (does not have to be empty)
• A current password set for your account (how to)

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While it may be relatively easy to crack a Windows account password, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use one. If your PC is mobile, you have even more reason to use this basic level of protection. This guide will show you how to set a Windows password or change your current password.
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