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December 18, 2007
Did you notice? At the very beginning of this blog I wrote this article: Basic Windows Tweaks for Better Computing Experience. Well, I still have plenty of similar articles up in my sleeves and haven't publish them yet. But I do have some interesting computer tips (old link) to share at Opentips.com written by various experts.
In Australia I spent most of my time working as a computer service technician. My job was to fix broken computer and maintain a network of around 20 computers for Internet cafe. It cost people up to $80 for a repair I done in few hours. Even when not at work, tweaking and maintaining a Windows PC is just my daily life.
I've been too busy with learning to blog. If the same amount of time that I read, I spend to write, now I would have few hundred articles up and running. Unfortunately, life is like that, learning make you slow down, but after that it give you much more benefit than not learning at all.
Recently I stumbled upon this blog called Web Tools and Tips because of some link bait. At first, I thought it's just some commercial blog up for nothing. But slowly when I repeatedly visit it I found it really match my taste.
If you have a blog, you should link to me now, whisper me and I will put a back link to your page too. My linking strategy is much more generous than many other bloggers. For instant you can check this article Top 65 Ping Sites for Wordpress Blogs, see how many inbound links I get from there, and compare how many outbound links from this post.
Silky the author behind Web Tools and Tips is writing a lot about computers tips and tricks. This really turn me on because it's my expertise. I always wanted to write tips and tweaks for Windows. At the time I write this article, the latest tips from Web Tools and Tips is: Make your Windows XP Computer run faster. Since this is what I know well and what I do, I would like to have a quick look at the advices. Here are the main point from this article.
- Remove unwanted software from your PC
- Remove unwanted programs from Start up
- Turn off the fancy Windows XP graphics
- Clear Browsing History and Temporary files
Well, allow me to give some humble opinions here, even though it's a little off-topic. I strongly agree with the first 3 points. By following those 3 advices you will greater improve the performance of any computer. However, I disagree on number 4. The author said:
If you are a consistent user of your web browser, then over a period, many unwanted Temporary Internet files, cookies, browsing history, your passwords etc. get accumulated in the memory, and is a drain on the PC resources. You can selectively delete them, specially the Temporary Internet files.
Source: http://webtoolsandtips.com/uncategorized/make-computer-fast/
No! If you delete the temporary Internet files you are loosing performance. The purpose of caching is to speed up the online browsing speed. The longer the history and temporary files the faster you will browse the Internet.
Just a simple example, imagine when you get hit a 10MB flash file. If you delete it from the cache, it will have to be downloaded the next time you view it... do you like that 2 minutes wait? If you leave it there, the next hit may take only 1 or 2 seconds.
The temporary files you need to clean up often, are not Temporary Interent Files, but the Temporary System files reside in C:\Temp, C:\Windows\Temp, and %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp.
Oh, that's just a quick look at something I'm good at. There are more to say, but not at this time and not in this article. Silky might not like my honest opinion but that's how I work. I always will give honest opinions even it is negative. I know it hurts because the person (even myself) would feel a little embarrassed, even angry sometimes. However, if that person (including myself) can take that as a positive criticism than they can improve very quickly and become more successful.
Overall, I found Web Tools and Tips very interesting blog and I will definitely be a loyal reader. I particularly like Tips 'n' Tricks category from this blog. It remind me to put something into my Windows category.
Hi Bin,
Thanks a lot for the generous linking to my posts. And also for the constructive criticism of my post.
Obviously, I take your comments as the positive criticism. Believe me, there are no hard feelings, absolutely no grudge. Option of providing such criticism is the most important factor, which makes blogging unique.
Regarding the issue, it is true that the very purpose of Temporary Internet Files is to keep a copy of the files in cache so as to retrieve them later and speed up the process, but if the memory in your PC is less, and if you continue to pile up these files, for say hundreds of MBs, then a situation may come, when they consume much of your resources, and since many of those pages are very old, and you will not be visiting them often, it is absolutely no use keeping them there.
It is like a trade off, you see. And that's what I had been referring to.
Anyways, nice to find a true critic.
Thanks again.
silki » No problems. I like your blog and I will always generously link to something I like.
About the 4th tip for faster PC, I consider it more as a debate than a critism.
When you say "memory" it refer to the Random Access Memory (RAM). But I believe you mean the Hard Disk. Yes, if your Hard Disk resource is scarce then surely there is some good point about cleaning up. I still can't recommend anyone to completely clean up the Internet temp folder because:
1. They spend their time to empty the folder, take more time
2. All the cache is gone, so next surf they will need to re-cache, take more time
3. All the DNS resolution need to be done again, take more time
However, I do recommend people to
1. clean up the Internet temp folder if your hard disk is really full and can't afford any extra MB. In that case you will have to suffer slow Internet surfing to maintain the overall performance.
2. limit the size of the temporary files folder to less MB, and
3. limit the length of history to less days so that less unnecessary hard disk resource is used.