Check your Hard Drive for errors and fix

It is well known that Hard Drive is very important part of any personal computer. Operating system. installed programs and other data are stored and running from your HDD and that's why it is very important to keep your hard disk drive well maintained and error free.

In this post you will learn how to scan hard drive for errors and fix all of them automatically.

Windows OS has scan disk option in disk properties. You will need to go to that disk - right mouse click - click properties. Under "Tools" tab you will be able to run Check disk.

Another way is to run CMD as administrator. Once inside command prompt type in chkdsk

If oyu are running newer windows and would like to run full check with restart type in  chkdsk  /f  /r  and schedule repair for next time your system restarts. Restart your PC and wait for errors to be scanned.

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Remove Start.search.us.com from your Browser

Start.search.us.com is well known by most computer users as browser hijacker virus.
Once installed on your PC it will take over control of your Internet Browser and it will become your
default search engine, no mater what you do.

Sometimes you will notice even if you Remove Start.search.us.com from your computer it manages to recover it self every time you open web browser or when you add new tab.

To gain control of your homepage again, first try following steps:

• Go to Control Panel - Uninstall a program  
  Find and uninstall anything related to Start search.us.com

• Remove any related extensions , or simply reset your browser
  IE : Go to Internet options from tools/setting menu and hit reset, delete personal settings
  Firefox: Go to Help Menu, Troubleshooting  information - reset firefox
  Chrome: Go to Chrome settings and reset - Restore chrome to its original default
  
  

If for some reason you are still having same problem than you should proceed to next step.
This is 100% Working for IE, Chrome, Firefox and many other browsers.

You will have to download AdwCleaner from Internet.
This is easy fix, but it might remove some other suspicious programs from your PC as well.

AdwCleaner is free portable application that will completely remove any ad-ware from your computer.
Run the Scan process and hit Clean button. Once completed you will have to restart your PC and go ahead and set new homepage in your browser or reset your browser one more time.

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How to create a new user in Windows 7

This is great feature by Win7 for those who share their computer with multiple users. Yes, it is possible to create a new user or multiple users depending on your requirements. Every user will have his own individual account and all settings, documents, pictures, videos, game saves including other personal data will be saved to separate space on hard drive and will not be accessible to others without permission.

Administrator / Owner can allow  different privileges to accounts so they can preform some administrative tasks or restrict them from doing certain operations. Go to Start - Control Panel as shown below:

This comes handy if you are sharing PC with your kids, assign them standard accounts with less privileges to keep your computer virus free. Standard users can use most software and change user settings that don't affect other users or security of your computer.

Also you can turn on guest account , people who don't have an account can log on with Guest account and will not be able to access password protected files , folders or computer settings.
No changes to operating system are made using this account.

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PC Specifications

Imagine you want to buy and play some games on your PC but you are not sure what your specs are.
Or lets say you want to buy used computer from someone but you have no idea what you are buying.
Learn how to check specifications in Windows 7, keep reading ...

To see see basic Computer Information as shown below, just right click on "Computer" and choose "Properties."You will be able to see Windows version, Processor information and RAM memory.

To list all devices just click "Device Manager" that is located in same window and you will see installed devices on your computer. To check your Hard Drive size just open "Computer" and click "Properties" on your Local Disk.

For graphic card do a right click on your desktop and chose "Screen Resolution" and then "Advanced Settings" You will see your graphic adapter Chip type , available memory and more. Read more about Video Memory.

If you are looking for more information regarding your devices I recommend using Speccy.
This tool is great if you are looking for advanced system information.
Wee need to know what is inside our computers for many reasons.

 This tool will provide detailed information:

• CPU                                                                                                                                                 Number of cores and threads, model, socket info, Buss speed, Cash size, Temperature...
• RAM                                                                                                                                                Memory type, Size, Channels, Frequency, Usage, Available Slots... 
• Motherboard                                                                                                                              Chipset, Model, Southbridge Vendor, Model, Temperature... 
• Graphics                                                                                                                                         Monitor info, Graphic Card, Model, Memory type, Temperature, GPU Clock ...
• Hard Drive                                                                                                                                             HDD Manufacturer, number of Heads, Cylinders, Size, Speed, Temperature ...
• Optical Drives                                                                                                                                      Media Type, Capabilities,Drive letter, SCSI port, Size, Transfer Rate ...    
• Audio                                                                                                                                                      Sound Card manufacturer, Playback device, recording device ...
• Peripherals                                                                                                                                            Such us Keyboard , Mouse, Touch Pad, USB devices, Printers ...
• Network                                                                                                                                           Connection info, Network Cards, Link speed, WiFi SSID, Frequency, Channel ...  

      Search for Speccy.

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How to Restore computer to earlier date

If for some reason you want to Restore your Windows computer to earlier date than you should continue reading this post. It is very importation that you save your documents somewhere safe - other than your Windows disk so that you don't lose your important data during this process. Remember you are doing this on your own risk.

There are two ways to have your Windows 7 computer restored to earlier date:

• System Restore from backup you made before
• System Restore to last restore point made by Windows - restore points that are made automatically by installing new software, windows updates etc...

In case you have done backup when your system was healthy and now you would like to use that as restore point you should open Control Panel ( Start-C.Panel ) than from "System and Security" choose "Backup and Restore". New window should appear with option to restore from backup available or locate backup you made before.

Another way is to use your last restore point available made by Windows. This is second option we mentioned above and it will undo recent system changes but leave files such as document, movies and music unchanged. Again use this with caution and be aware this might remove recently installed programs and drivers.

Go to Start-Control Panel - System and Security and click Restore your computer to an earlier time that is located under Action Center as shown on picture below. Open System Restore and choose date to restore.

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How to compress files in Windows 7

There are several ways on How to compress files in Windows 7 , this could be done with third party programs such as WinZip, WinRar etc. Every advanced PC user will eventually need to archive and compress data.
This is very useful while sending email attachment to reduce its size. You dont want to end up sending large attachments since its time consuming for you and for person that will receive email as well.

• First lets cover how to compress files without installing any additional software.
  Go to your file or folder that you need to compress and right mouse click on it,
  next click "Send to" and then choose "compressed zipped folder"
  New compressed file will appear on same location under same name ready for your action.

• Another method is using third party programs , I prefer using WinRar and here is why:
  You will need to download WinRar and install. Just search for it online. Once installed you can simply go to your folder , right mouse click and  choose "Add to archive..."
  Now what I like here is that new window will appear ,just like window shown bellow where you can choose Archive format , Compression method and more. Usually I will make self extraction archive and Lock archive so other people cant open it without password.
  SFX means that you will not need any programs to open this archive , it will self extract.

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How to uninstall programs on Windows 7

Uninstalling old, unused programs from your computer can dramatically improve your overall PC experience.
Most users will pickup some free programs from the internet without even knowing what they just did.

What can happen is that while you are installing certain program - installer will install one ore more additional programs with it, that's why it is very important to read every step during the setup process.If you are offered some additional programs make sure that you make those unchecked otherwise you will end up with sluggish computer and too many programs at Windows start-up.

Click Start button and navigate to Control Panel. Next click uninstall a program under Programs option and following window will appear. Carefully choose what to uninstall. Also keep in mind that uninstalling an application from window shown below will completely remove any data associated with it.  So just delete what you really don't need anymore. Now you should know How to uninstall programs on Windows 7

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