Acer C7 Chromebook from Google Play, $199
What can you get for $199?
Dual-core Intel Celeron Processor
2 GB DDR3 RAM
320 GB hard drive
Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2x2
Built in Ethernet/audio/HDMI/VGA/3 x USB 2.0
100 GB of Google Drive Cloud Storage for 2 years.
Allegedly, a hassle-free computer. Starts in seconds. No annoying updates.
No expensive software to buy. Built for everyday use and perfect for
sharing with others.
That's what Google says but is a Chromebook for everyone. If consumers are having such a difficult time figuring out Windows 8 how will they ever adapt to the Chrome OS and life in the cloud?
It's not that hard really. The Chromebook boots in seconds, stays up to date without the annoying update process.
The Chromebook is an excellent choice for those who need more than internet access or email. It has a built in keyboard which allows for more productive tasks. The Chromebook combined with remote access sites such as LogMein allow access to your office/home PC while on the road at an affordable price.
If at a minimum you have an Outlook.com account then you can create Word, Excel or Powerpoint docs using the built in Applets that come free with the account.
Let's face facts, if I have access to a good desktop I am not going to use a notebook and I know many of my clients are the same way. So why have an expensive notebook that is under utilized when for $199 you could purchase a ChromeBook?
Sound back and let me know what you think.
What Does Slow Windows Down Over Time?
(A reprint of a Dec 28, 2009 article)
I'm not
going to sit here and tell you that your Windows PC will never slow
down—because for many people, they almost always do. What
actually
slows your PC down are too many poorly written applications that stay
resident in memory and waste CPU cycles, having too many badly written
low-level applications that hook into Windows, or running more than one
antivirus application at a time. And of course, if you've run your PC's
hard drive out of space, you can hardly blame Windows for that.
If
you aren't getting the picture, the problem is usually the person
behind the keyboard that installed too many junk applications in the
first place. More gently put, it's often that (very well-meaning)
person's gradual easing of their safeguards and cleaning regimens as
time goes by.
Stop Installing Junk Applications
Installing
software should be thought of like feeding your PC. If you constantly
feed your PC garbage apps, it's going to get sick and won't be able to
run fast anymore. These poorly written applications clutter your drive
with unnecessary DLL files, add always-resident Windows services when
they don't need to, bloat up your registry, and add useless icons to
your system tray that waste even more memory and CPU cycles. Usually you
can get away with using a few terrible applications, but as you
continue to install more and more of them, your PC will slow down to a
crawl.
Be Smarter About What You Do Install
We
feature and recommend a lot of software applications around here, but
you should keep in mind that we aren't trying to tell you to install
every single one of them at the same time-just install the applications
that you
actually need and you'll generally prevent the dreaded format and reinstall.
Here's a few tips to help you know what applications you should be careful with:
- Apps that function as an Explorer plug-in,
because they directly hook into the shell and any problem will make
your entire PC slow or in the worst case, crash repeatedly.
- Antivirus applications
are notorious for slowing your PC down, and you should never, ever,
ever use more than one real-time antivirus application at a time. We
recommend Microsoft Security Essentials as a free, fast, and awesome antivirus tool.
- Anything that says it will "Speed Up Your PC" or "Optimize Your RAM" will most likely slow it down, or best case, do nothing at all. Avoid these like the plague.
- Make sure to install official system drivers from the manufacturer website. Drivers have a huge impact on performance, and you want to have stable, updated drivers.
- Registry cleaners
are a mixed bag, and really aren't going to speed up your PC in most
cases. The biggest problem, however, is that too many of the commercial
registry cleaners set themselves to run at startup in the system tray,
wasting your memory and CPU cycles.
- You should strongly consider the idea of using portable applications
wherever possible, since their self-contained nature means they won't
clutter up the rest of your PC with things you don't need.
Keep Your Computer Clean and Trim
Once
you've rid yourself of your junk application habit and resolved to only
use healthy, useful applications, you'll want to make sure to keep your
PC clean of any remaining clutter that doesn't need to be there. You
can set up a
shortcut to manually run CCleaner silently with the push of a button, but your best bet is to
set up CCleaner to run automatically on a schedule, so you don't have to remember to do it.
Since
CCleaner is only going to clean up temporary files, you'll still need a
good solution for keeping the rest of your PC clean-and Lifehacker's
own Belvedere
can help you automate your self-cleaning PC or
automatically clean up your download folder.
With
all of this automated file deletion going on, your hard drive is likely
to get a bit fragmented. If you're already running Windows 7 or Vista,
automatic defrag comes out of the box and probably shouldn't be messed
with, but Windows XP users will need to
use Windows Tasks to setup a schedule and automatically defrag their drives.
Use a Virtual Machine or Sandbox to Test Software
If
you still want to test out all of the latest software, including apps
that look a bit rough around the edges, your best bet is to use a
virtual machine to test out anything before putting it onto your primary
operating system. You can install all of your software in an XP or
Windows 7 VM just like it was a real PC, and with the latest VMWare
player releases, you can
even enable Windows Aero in a guest VM. If you are new to the idea and need some more help, you should check out our
beginner's guide to creating virtual machines in VirtualBox, or Windows 7 users can
check out our guide to using XP Mode. If you don't want to go the virtual machine route, Windows XP and Vista users can alternatively use Windows SteadyState to
protect their PC and roll back all of the changes on a reboot.
