Windows Explorer Crashes: Fixes

Under various versions of Windows, Windows Explorer may repeatedly crash either when certain actions are taken (e.g. right-clicking an item), after several minutes of use, or immediately after the system starts up. In some cases, the following error messages are displayed:

“Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close”

The first thing you need to [...]

Speeding Up Windows 7 with Process Explorer

Here’s a free, easy and quick method for routinely eliminating performance bottlenecks in Windows 7.
Download and install Process Explorer, which is part of the Microsoft SysInternals package. Launch the program, and you’ll be presented a beautiful display of all processes currently running on your system, along with a bevy of information about each process, including [...]

Slow Windows 7 Shutdown: Fix

If you are experiencing slow Windows 7 shutdowns, there is an easy way to identify the potential culprit (an antivirus program, driver, or other process).
Navigate to: Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced Tools. In some cases, this screen will display the problem files.
Failing that, open the “View [...]

What’s New in Windows 7 Build 7021: Faster Graphics, Smaller Installer

Windows 7 Build 7021 is the latest build of the new OS, due in final form on October 22nd, to leak to file sharing networks. Users report that the new release provides yet another significant speed boost, along with the following enhancements:

Smaller installer
Better automatic driver installation (if you had third-party device issues with previous releases, [...]

Windows 7 Build 7137 Leaks; Gets Another Speed Boost

The latest pre-release edition of Windows 7, build 7137, has been distributed to testers and subsequently leaked to various file-sharing services. Users of the new build report yet another speed speed boost relative to prior build,s particularly with regard to graphic performance.
Users also report the installation of new ATI graphics card drivers after the update.
If [...]

Office 2007 SP2 Released: What’s New

Microsoft today released Office 2007 SP2, the latest edition of the company’s productivitiy suite. The new release is cumulative, meaning that it includes fixes included in Office 2007 SP1 and other public updates, security updates and hotfixes that were issued through February 2009.
The new release can be downloaded here.
What’s New Among the major enhancements in [...]

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.10 Released: Fixes “Major Stability Issue”

Mozilla.org has released Firefox 3.0.10 for Windows, the latest release of the open-source Web browser. The release notes state only that this update:

“Fixed a major stability issue.”

However, some users are reporting dramatically enhanced performance, particularly with regard to JavaScript.
If you are having issues after this update or have other feedback, please let us know.

Slow iTunes: Boosting Performance

A number of Windows iTunes users have reported extremely poor performance from the application. Symptoms include long lags when clicking on items, delays before playback starts, slow launches and more.
Fixes
There are a few specific fixes that can provide a significant boost in iTunes for Windows speed.
Exclude iTunes library from antivirus software Launch [...]

Five Real Ways to Speed Up a Slow Windows Vista

Here’s the dirty little secret about most registry cleaners and defragmentation tools: they don’t work that well. Despite their boasting, most programs that claim to automatically “optimize” your system or “clean out the junk” generally leave users virtually unchanged system performance. And unless there’s a direct reason to suspect heavy disk fragmentation (if there is, [...]