PC Help from the Web - Top PC Help Sites
Written by admin on November 29, 2008
We all need a little help from time to time; even the most skilled computer technicians don’t know everything. Luckily there is a wealth of assistance available via a whole range of excellent PC related websites. Below we will take a look at a few of these and introduce their features and their strong points.
One of the best PC support websites out there is http://www.helpwithpcs.com/ it contains a whole wealth of useful information as well as reviews of hardware and software and many excellent free guides. The website also contains a very active and lively technical support forum, where you will find you can receive help from other individuals if you ask the right questions in the right way.
The Granddaddy of all computer hardware sites is without a doubt http://www.tomshardware.com/. This site has been in existence for over a decade and now contains a full range of how-to guides, tutorials and excellent hardware reviews, all backed up by one of the most popular PC related forums on the Internet today. If you have any question regarding computer hardware this is the best place to start looking for an answer. Recently the site has gone fully multilingual making it a perfect resource for everybody around the globe.
A bright new star in the PC help website arena is http://www.suggestafix.com/. This support forum has grown in popularity very quickly. It contains sections covering everything from Windows installation through to PC tweaking and overclocking. If you have a question that needs to be put to the PC community to receive an answer, then this is a great place to post it. No expensive website design, no advertising, just a simple and effective support forum.
Have you ever fired up your Windows task manager only to find one or more tasks that you do not recognise? Tracking down the owner owner or function of a Windows task can be very difficult, but luckily http://www.pchelpforum.com is on hand to provide some help. This website maintains a database of a huge number of Windows tasks and processes making the identification of your running tasks simple.
These are just a selection of the excellent PC support websites that can be found on the Internet, each of these makes a great starting place to begin your search for an answer to your questions. There are also many specialist sites dealing with niche technical issues, many of these can be found by searching Google.
The Myths Surrounding System Restore
Written by admin on November 23, 2008
There are a whole bunch of myths and misconceptions which surround the Microsoft Windows system restore feature. This is unfortunate, as system restore itself is a fine concept and one which can be extremely useful. However, it should be noted that if you do not understand exactly what system restore is designed to do, then it is possible that you will come to rely upon it, thinking that it can safeguard you from a whole host of problems for which it was never designed to protect you from.
The most often misunderstood issue regarding Microsoft Windows system restore is that computer users believe it protects their data. This is entirely wrong, all saved documents, downloads and any personal information is not protected by system restore. System restore merely takes a snapshot of the state of your operating system and installed software whenever you install or uninstall an application or apply any operating system fixes or install new device drivers. This allows the user to step back in time and restore their PC to a previous state if they find that a new piece of software or device driver is incompatible with the current software suite, or causes some other form of problem.
Another myth regarding system restore is that people believe that it is completely hands-off, and requires no maintenance or administrative tasks at all. This is incorrect, every time system restore creates a restore point it will store a large quantity of data on your hard drive. This means that over time, it could end up filling an awful lot space. It is important that from time to time the PC owner removes outdated restore points. It is not unknown for system restore to take up 30 to 40 GB of space within just a few short weeks a fresh system install. To regain the space, simply delete the old restore points.
Although system restore is an extremely useful function, you can choose to turn it off altogether. This is especially useful for PC owners who have a limited amount of hard drive space available, and do not wish the PC to create restore points every time they install or uninstall an application.
So in summary, the Microsoft Windows system restore feature does not protect user specific data in any way, it simply ensures that the user has an easy way to roll back their PC to a previous state should they encounter problems after installing or uninstalling software, device drivers or operating system updates.
