diagnostics

A reliable freeware application, Wise Disk Cleaner Free may surprise you with its quick scanning pace. Novices will appreciate its optional wizard to guide you through the process of naming and taming space-sucking files. More experienced users can proceed on their own.

As you would with any system cleaner, you'll still need to take precautions when fixing problems. Luckily, this app wisely lets you move files to the Recycle Bin in the event you've deleted something important.

Wise Disk Cleaner Free is simple, has just enough options for more serious users, and can quickly make a difference in … Read more

If you're looking for an agile, do-it-all disk cleaner and optimizer, Wise Disk Cleaner Free isn't it. It is, however, a reliable freeware application that may surprise you with its quick scanning pace and it's optional wizard that guides you through the process of naming and taming unnecessary, space-sucking files.

You'll be able to include or exclude the file types scanned and he location on your drive. Pay close attention to the Options menu that lets you sanction temporary files and folders and broken shortcuts--you may want to spare something that's herded in by default. … Read more

Most of the time our Macs run smoothly due to the well-designed Mac OS X (choose your big cat) operating system. But over time, as you download more applications, visit more Web sites, and begin to use up space on your hard drive, your Mac won't run as quickly and smoothly as it did out of the box. Some users reason that it must be a RAM or hard-drive issue, but more often than not it's a question of maintenance rather than inadequate hardware.

I've talked about programs for uninstalling old or unused apps in an earlier post, … Read more

As new Web applications debut, and older ones are enhanced, we spend more of our work time in a browser. Unfortunately, we also seem to be spending more time trying to figure out why our browsers aren't displaying the sites we visit correctly, or at all.

These days it's tough being a Web designer. Even if you create sites that comply with the latest HTML and other Web standards, you can't be sure that the pages will open or function as intended for all of the site's visitors. The fact is, Internet Explorer plays by its … Read more

Some people like to know everything there is to know about what their PC is doing. Not me. I just want the dang thing to work, and when it stops working, I want the simplest, surest, fastest, and cheapest fix available, skip the details.

This puts me at odds with PC pros who believe there's nothing blissful about tech ignorance. Okay, I see their point, but there are a world of things I'd rather be doing than scrolling through Windows event logs.

When I described ways to diagnose a hanging application, several readers took me to task for … Read more

The last time Windows' System Restore failed on me, I didn't blink an eye. I gave up trusting Microsoft's own Registry safety net a long time ago. And considering the quality Registry freeware available, there's no reason you should rely on Windows to repair and recover from Registry-related problems. These four freebies will keep the Windows engine purring like a kitten.

Clear out the clutter with CCleaner Piriform's popular Windows-optimization utility includes a Registry-scrubbing component that clears out old application paths, ActiveX controls, shared DLLs, fonts, icons, and other Registry detritus. The program gives you the … Read more

When Power Downloader is hard at work in the Powerlair he often has several programs running simultaneously. Though he has plenty of RAM in his super system, Power likes to keep track of memory usage to see what's taking up the most space. It also helps to have memory tracking apps when he needs to diagnose system slow downs.

To keep track of how much memory is being used by his mission-critical apps, Power Downloader uses FreeMeter. With this free program on his computer, Power can track disk space usage, memory usage, disk transfer rates, and more all from … Read more

When Power Downloader returned to the Powerlair after finishing up a case, he knew he would have plenty of e-mails to go through before he could have any downtime. Powering up his computer, Power waited while his computer went through its normal startup routine and then proceeded to open his e-mail client to see how many new messages he had. To his delight, several of the e-mails were easily deleted and only simple confirmations or answers were required of his usual global contacts.

Close to the end of his list of new e-mail, Power Downloader found a message from Kitty … Read more

As a frequent downloader of new software, I test and review a ton of programs on my PC at work. But after installing and uninstalling so many programs, it doesn't take long for my registry to become a complete mess, which causes errors, sluggishness, and sometimes even crashes. The problem is that not all programs uninstall as easily as they install and often registry entries are left to stagnate in your system and may eventually cause problems.… Read more