It’s no secret that I’m absolutely counting down the days until I’ll buy a brand-new iMac, complete with the newest version of OSX and souped up to never, ever let me down. It’s also no secret that the computer I do have is a five-year-old low-end Dell laptop… which is pretty well known in the Dell circle for its awesome ability to overheat and melt down the inside. How it’s lasted this long is beyond me.
I… don’t really like Windows. I don’t really like my computer. However, it’s what I have to live with for a while, so I might as well tweak it so it’s the way I want it, right?
Disclaimer: This is just an informational, nerdy post I’m making after spending all day messing with my computer to get it working right again.
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Windows XP, which is what I’ve used most of the time I’ve been on computer, is complete eye-candy when compared to older versions. If you’re like me, though, this isn’t enough. WindowBlinds gives you almost full control of your desktop. You can download and switch between themes which can give you almost any look… from high-tech to a Mac look-a-like. It’s a paid program, but the free trial version does almost as much.
You can also tweak your fonts so they look smooth, and not so pixelly and rough by activating Clear Type. Right click on your desktop, and go to properties. In the appearance tab, go to the effects button. Check the second box (”use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts”) and choose “Clear Type.” Save, and voila! Bet you didn’t know that text could look so beautiful.
A Minimalistic Approach
I don’t know about you, but I hate icons on my desktop. It’s cluttered, it’s in the way, and it blocks whatever background image you have. I have absolutely no icons on my desktop, but I still have that functionality, due to an awesome program called Object Dock. It adds a bar across the top of your screen (which can autohide when you’re not using it) that hold icons to your favorite files and programs.
Too Much Junk
I can be obsessive-compulsive with programs, most often neat programs I find online. Sometimes I use them. Sometimes I don’t. Either way, they tend to really steal all the room on my hard drive, leaving me with a computer that functions about as well as, oh, a brick?
Uninstall everything you’re not using anymore. Get rid of old files that you don’t need (if you think you may possibly need them in the future, burn them to a disk and then delete them from your hard drive). Get rid of temporary internet files and cookies. If you use something like Outlook Express for your email (most don’t anymore), get rid of those five years of junk emails. Delete those pictures of your sixth-grade crush. Get rid of videos and mp3’s that you don’t watch or listen to anymore. Defragment.
This morning, when I woke up, I had about five percent free space on my main hard drive. Never fear, I’ve got an external drive for all of my files, but five percent of free space internally doesn’t work at all. I found a program which maps out your entire hard drive, graphically, you can see in a snap where all of your gigs are going: WinDir Stat. Seriously, it was a lifesaver. I ran it, had it scan my drive (which took about five minutes), and immediately saw some problems on my hard drive.
I deleted two folders and moved one video file to my external, and HALF of my hard drive was now free. Free!
In short: Make it your own
All of that is just to encourage some personality on your own computers, whether it’s your own or one that’s shared. Little things make all the difference. Change the desktop, the theme, the icons, the organization. Add widgets, a dock, a clock, a calendar. Autohide your taskbar or leave it alone. Clean up and uninstall. Upgrade your memory (I’m doing that this week) or get more elbow room in the hard drive department.
I think I’m also going to follow this up with an article on the must-have programs that I use every single day.
Total nerd post. But I’m getting that last program.
October 13th, 2007
@Shawna: Well, you’re one to talk!
October 13th, 2007
I am so disorganized in real life. Well, I mean, I know what each pile contains, but they’re still messy piles.
On the computer, I’m just like you. I organize and reorganize my files on a daily basis. I defragment and scan my drives weekly and I always know exactly what’s going on inside my machine.
For aesthetic reasons, the programs you talked about are great. But if performance is something you’re concerned with, and it’s obvious you are with a 5 year old lappy, you need to reconsider. I too have a laptop and I strive for the perfect balance. Here are my suggestions:
I used to use Object Dock, but there’s a huge flaw with using it. The free version is great, but there is actually no difference between the free and paid versions. This means that the entire (vast) feature set of the paid version is still loaded and running on your system even though you can’t access it. Because of this, ObjectDock runs slow and eats up your system resources. I strongly recommend switching to RocketDock (www.rocketdock.com). It is streamlined to exactly the features you need without any of the bloat. It is completely free and it still has great support for skins, icons, and customization. I’ve been using it for months and I can’t stop raving about it. Best program I’ve ever used!
The other thing I wanted to say was that running WindowBlinds is a huge no-no if you need better performance. If you can’t live without your Mac desktop, then I guess you’re stuck. But if you can give it up, I’d suggest you uninstall that program. It will really help.
I like ClearType and have nothing bad to say about it… for now.
I don’t know what virus protection software you use, but if you aren’t paying for one (or don’t mind switching anyway) you should try the free version of AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/). It’s a very basic virus scanner so don’t use it unless you are a smart internet user and know what to do in case of a major threat. But it has a very tiny footprint compared to McAfee and Norton. So if you need improved performance, check it out.
Sorry for the long comment, but I like helping people. I’m sure some of this will help you and anyone else who reads it. Nice post, btw.
October 13th, 2007
Andrew, you rock. Seriously.
I’m always under the hood, seeing what’s consuming my computer’s resources, and actually, OD and WB don’t take up much at all. I tried rocket dock, didn’t like it.
I use AVG too, have for YEARS. And I haven’t had a single virus problem since I installed a firewall anyway.
Now hurry up and get your website up so I can stop talking to myself
October 13th, 2007
Hahaha, yeah. I’m so busy. I’ll get my website up as soon as I can. It’s gonna rock too!
You are right about WB, it’s not a terrible resource hog, but every little bit helps. I have to disagree with you about OD, however. When I was using it (for about a year) it would use anywhere from 12-26 MB of RAM (I remember those numbers because they haunted me). Alone, that’s not bad, but when you have little else to work with, you need that RAM and you need it badly. I have 1.25 GB of RAM with a 2 GHz processor and when I would be playing a game or using Photoshop + Dreamweaver, trying to get OD to respond quickly was like asking an old man in a wheelchair to move quicker at the “Running of the Bulls”. It just wasn’t going to happen, and similarly it was all over for the man in the wheelchair. I really didn’t think much of it until I tested RocketDock. The footprint is half the size, the response is immediate even when coming out of a process surge, and I find it to be much easier to customize.
Why don’t you like it? I’d like to know. I find it interesting because I was able to switch without ever regretting my decision. OD will always be what it is now unless you pay. RD is constantly being developed and being totally free, will never leave you wishing. I can’t wait for them to add support for “remembered” drive icons. Something OD didn’t have either. These icons would disappear when you disconnect an external drive, but pop right back in place when you reconnect it at a later time. Wouldn’t that be rad?! It’s supposedly coming soon!
October 14th, 2007
Oh, also… Tell me more about WinDir Stat. I’m skeptical. What does it do that a normal cleanup and defragment can’t? How useful is it really? Explain!
October 14th, 2007
Hmm, OD doesn’t take NEARLY as much of my ram… it might just be a newer version, who knows?
Oh, and WinDir… it doesn’t defrag and it doesn’t really clean up. It’s like a drive map, it shows you exactly what is hogging up your hard drive space, so that YOU can decide if there’s something that needs to go. It’s pretty lightweight. No, you still cleanup and defrag and all of that.
October 14th, 2007