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We recently wrote a post about performing a ‘Disk Cleanup’ on XP and we thought it would be a good idea to do one for Vista too! Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance application included in Microsoft Windows operating systems. It’s designed to free up disk space on your computers hard drive. Therefore, it’s worth performing a cleanup every so often. The feature searches and reviews your hard drive for files which are no longer necessary. It will then, after you’ve made some selections, remove any files that are not needed on your machine.

Here is how to perform Disk Cleanup on Vista:

1. Firstly click on the start Orb and type ‘Disk Cleanup’ in the box.  Then click on the ‘Disk Cleanup’ option under programs (Click on image to enlarge)
   
2. Secondly, select whether you’d like to perform the task for just your account or every account on the system.
   
3. Next choose which drive you would like the cleanup to be performed on.  For this example we’ll use option (C:).  You can choose the drive from the drop down list.  Once you’ve chosen click ‘OK’
   
4. The computer will then scan your selected drive
   
5. Next you should make selections regarding which files you would like to be removed.  Simply click on the option, read the description and if you’d like this to be removed click in the box next to the option so it has a tick in it. (Click on image to enlarge)
   
6. To confirm your selections click ‘delete files’
   
7. Your computer will now perform a Disk Cleanup
   

We hope this has been helpful. Running Disk Cleanup can be a great way to increase the performance of your computer.  If you have any questions comment below!

Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance application included in Microsoft Windows operating systems.  It’s designed to free up disk space on your computers hard drive.  Therefore, it’s worth performing a cleanup every so often.  The feature searches and reviews your hard drive for files which are no longer necessary.  It will then, after you’ve made some selections, remove any files that are not needed on your machine.

Here is how to run a Disk Cleanup on XP:

1. Firstly click ‘Start’ and select ‘All Programs’
   
2. Then Select ‘Accessories’, followed by ‘System Tools’ and finally ‘Disk Cleanup’ (Click on image to enlarge)
   
3. Your computer will now run a scan to locate files that could be removed or compressed.
   
4. Next you should make selections regarding which files you would like to be removed.  Simply click on the option, read the description and if you’d like this to be removed click in the box next to the option so it has a tick in it.   We recommend that you don’t select to compress files as it will slow down your computer considerably (Click on image to enlarge)
   
5. Your computer will now perform the Disk Cleanup.
   

Hopefully this tutorial has been helpful and will encourage you to run a Disk Cleanup.  It’s a free way to improve the speed of your computer!

We will post about Disk Cleanup on Vista next week!

See Also:
Defrag for XP
ScanDisk for XP

Just a quick review of our last poll ‘Do You Have A Webcam?’  30% of the voters do have a Webcam.  We were surprised that a staggering 70% don’t have a Webcam.  We understand that a percentage of these voters may be business readers, but that is still a huge figure.

Webcams are great pieces of equipment to have and open up a new world of communication.  For instance, you could use Skype to communicate with people all over the world, and instead of just talking you can see each other too!

Last month’s Poll was ‘Do you own a Laptop or a Desktop?’  Results show that a majority of our voters, 44%, own both a Laptop and a Desktop, compared to 36% who own a single Desktop and 19% who own a Laptop.  Both Laptop’s and Desktop’s have their good sides and bad sides.  To find out more read our post on Brandstar titled ‘Laptop vs Desktop‘.

Don’t forget to vote on this month’s poll, ‘Do you have a Webcam?’!!

Here are our Top 3 Inket Printers:

1. Canon Pixma MP620 – We are big fans of Canon at PCToolbox and Brandstar and this printer is one which we have sold two of in the last week!  Although it’s not a small machine it is a scanner/printer all in one, it is a USB Printer and it has a wireless option which is fantastic, the ultimate in lazy printing and relatively speaking it is cheap!  Inks for it range from about £7-£15 depending where you buy from but for photo and everyday printing this has to be an option!  If you don’t want the wireless option consider the MP540 mentioned later.
2. Canon MP540 – Again an All in One printer, scanner, copier machine but this one is just USB, no wireless option, and it saves you nearly £50 too so you have got to really want the wireless feature and slightly better specification to go for the MP620.  Very good for photo printing and general home use.  See the link for full specifications or check out the cannon website.
3. Canon iP2600 – Last but not least ANOTHER Canon Printer, I told you we are fans!!  This is a cheap as chips printer at around £30.  Ok expensive chips but you know what I mean.  This printer is just a printer, not scanner.  It is perfect if you have kids who will be wanting to churn off sheet after sheet of ‘work’!  Or if you’re a Uni student needing a printer on a budget or just don’t want to spend vast amounts of money on a printer.  Being a Canon the quality will be good for both the machine and the printing and you can knock out a half decent photo too!

Here are our Top 3 Keyboard and Mouse Desktop Sets!

1. Microsoft Desktop 1000 – Its cheap, reliable and has good battery life…what more could you want!?  We use these here in the office and they’re brilliant, a really nice feel to type with and we seem to replace the batteries every 6 months, Simple and Cheap is sometimes the best and most reliable way!  It’s easy to install and on Vista it doesn’t seem to need a disk!
2. Microsoft Desktop 3000 – For those who liked the old style natural keyboard this might be the one for you.  The curve isn’t quite so sharp but this is certainly a comfortable keyboard to use.  A bit more than the desktop 1000 but if you need the natural layout well worth considering!
3. We don’t have a third keyboard.  If you don’t want to use the one that came with your machine then we would personally go for one of the two above.  If you really don’t like those options then the best suggestion is to visit a local PC supplier and have a try on a few.  Most big stores have a variety of Microsoft and Logitec keyboards and mice on display for people to try out!

Do you have a keyboard and mouse desktop set that you can recommend?

As we can only talk about the machines we have actually tested it does limit us a little to the wide range that Dell offer.  But here are our Top 3!

1. Studio 15 – This may not be a high end laptop, but not everyone can afford a Precision or XPS Studio!  The Studio 15 starts at around £399 and comes with the options to be a very  powerful or gaming laptop.  Intel Core Duo 2 Processors, up to 4GB Memory, Running Windows Vista, Graphics Card from 128MB!  Perfect for the average home gamer!  These laptops are stylish and well built and best of all great value for money!  Can’t be bad!
2. Latitude E5500 – Starting at around £530 this isn’t a cheap business laptop, but neither is it a really expensive one with some great like back-lit keyboard, ambient light sensor as well as all the usual stuff this laptop has incredible battery life, one user in particular can’t believe how good it is.  If you are looking for a machine that will give you a long time running the machine away from a power source then the Latitude E5500 is a certain.  We haven’t reviewed the E5500 but here is our review of the E6500 which is a similar machine!
3. XPS M1330 – This neat little laptop is brilliant, although no cheap.  For anyone who wants a lightweight, small notebook this should definitely be considered.  With options for high memory and a decent graphics card it is really a showy off laptop!  Read our Dell XPS M1330 Reviews:

• Dell XPS M1330 – Long Term Test

• Dell XPS M1330 Crimson Red Laptop Review

Here are our Top 3 ADSL Wireless Modem Routers:

1. Linksys WAG160N – This is the ‘new’ type of wireless technology.  The router is excellent, easy to setup, and made by Cisco so has bags of features if you need to do things like VPN pass-through or just want to set it up to be able to Remote Desktop into one of your machines from elsewhere.  The range is good, if not better than any of the other Wireless N routers we have used.  If you’re interested in the Wireless-N Technology have a read on Wikipedia.  This product is currently priced at £69.94 which is a really good price!!
2. Belkin 125g Wireless Router – Now this is a fairly old router, we have been using these for a couple of years now, and for home users or if you aren’t connecting to a Server then this is a brilliant router.  It is under £45, it has a fantastic range, definately the best we have seen on a router of this price and they last, we’ve got a number of clients running these and we have had no problems what so ever with reliability.  This really is a contender for first place.  It is only Wireless G+ so no the new N Technology and the 125 speed only works if you have a compatible adaptor, but still just for the great range I would recommend this router.
3. Linksys WAG 54GS – Yes another Linksys router, but they are by far the best and also some of the cheapest from the big name brands!  This one is excellent for networks that don’t require a long range but require all the features of a Linksys router as mentioned for the WAG160N.

Do you have any Wireless Routers you can recommend?

Here at PCToolbox we are always being asked which products are worthwhile buying and which aren’t, so we are going to start doing posts with our Top Three Items from a product range, this time round its Portable Hard Drives.  Portable (External) Hard Drives are beccoming increasingly a necessity in the average household as nobody wants to risk loosing their music, photos or documents.  Here are our top three:

1. WD Elements – A very small, reliable and stylish portable hard drive from Western Digital.  Western Digital are one of the best in their market and the hard drive works out to be extremely good value for money.
2. Freecom – Slightly more expensive but it is a network attached storage device, so multiple machines can easily access the drive over the network and backup.  Perfect for small businesses or home networks.
3. WD MyBook – Yes another from Western Digital!  WD MyBook isn’t quite as small as the elements drive but you get twice as much space for your money, and it is still portable and stylish.  We have found these drives to be very reliable!

Do you have any you can recommend too?

At the end of last year we mentioned that we would be writing a range of posts about Microsoft’s Windows Home Server and I thought that a good place to start would be recommending some books.

There are two that we suggest you start with, your experience with networks and servers will depend on which one will suit you best.

The first is “Windows Home Server User Guide”, this will allow you to setup the server and get client machines connected with shared files, printers and more.  If you are new to networking and/or servers then this is the book to start with.  It talks you through the basics to get you fully functioning Windows Home Server easily and relatively quick.

The second is “Windows Home Server Unleashed”, this again goes through the basics but it goes a lot further as well.  If you are familiar with networking and have some server experience then we would say this is the one to go for.  It takes you through doing a lot more than the first book….but then it is probably 4 times the size!

So there we go, that is the first step, get the book…oh and the software…if you don’t have the software then download a trial.

More Windows Home Server posts coming throughout 2009!!