Saving Downloads

[fran]

Since I installed PSE and downloaded backgrounds etc., my computer has been extremely slow. I removed a bunch of other programs and it helped a bit, but I find that it's still too slow. Is it possible it's the downloads? Can I save them to a CD and use them from there each time?

[Betsy]

It may well be the digital kits on your harddrive.

You can certainly store them and/or back them up to a CD or DVD (Holds more, but may over time be less stable). You can also purchase what is called an external harddrive - if you watch the sales circulars, they are coming down in price and often on sale - to hold digital kits, photos and layouts.

[Guest greyboxes]

I agree. It could be your new program, downloads, and whatnot draining your computer’s memory (especially your RAM) You can save to a CD/DVD and load everything from there, but that would drive me crazy- it would take a good while to see everything on the disk. A better option would be to get an external hard drive that you dedicated to your scrapbooking stuff. I’d try some (free) quick fixes first and see if they help; if not, invest in some more memory!

I leave my computer run for days at a time. The longer it runs, the more sluggish it gets. Shutting it down and restarting helps. This clears the memory and temp files for most systems, but you can clear the latter on your own to be sure.

(Assuming you have a PC running Windows…) Go to My Computer > Local Disk (C:) > temp. In here are the temporary files that got stuck here while you browsed online or downloaded files. Select them all, and delete them.

Just about every site you go to sets a cookie or ten. These collect and store all kinds of information about you, often for years. Sometimes this can be useful…like when a page “remembers” who you are or when you visited last. However, unless you regularly clean them up, there are a bunch of unnecessary cookies hanging out on your machine. Just delete them. There are soo many browsers out there, and they all store cookies differently, so I’ll skip the explanation on how- google for directions instead

Empty your Recycle Bin, too. Just deleting files stores them here, and it drains your system resources. Same goes for deleted email files if you use a program like Outlook- get them out of your trash folder and off your computer.

If you’d rather your computer delete whatever it deems unnecessary, run a Disk Cleanup. Go to My Computer and RIGHT click on Local Disk (C:) and choose Properties. Under the General tab, there is a button next to the blue and pink pie graph that says Disk Cleanup. Choose it, and follow the prompts- the default setting should be conservative and safe.

Check out your Windows System Tray. That’s the box with all the little icons next to your clock…everything listed here loads when you start your computer and runs the entire time. Programs like your firewall and anti-virus should be here, stuff you don’t need can be closed. Configure your system to only load the programs you want by going to Control panel > Taskbar and Start Menu and clicking on the Customize button.

Try to always have 200 MBs of your C drive open. If Windows doesn’t have enough free space to work with, it will start dumping your data onto your hard drive and get super slow. When you delete programs, make sure you are using the Add/Delete feature found under START > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs.

We are supposed to defrag our systems once a month, but no one I know manages that! Still, try to run it as often as you can (just back up your files and pictures first.) The Windows Disk Defragmenter gathers together all the little empty areas of storage space and arranges them into big usable chunks of room, and tucks all the parts of your files together again. Run this by going to START > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Depending on when you last did this, it can take quite a while. It’s not a good idea to be using your computer as you run the defrager, either. So start it before you go to bed at night, and your computer will be running smoother in the morning.

Scandisk is a good thing to run when you can, too. I think of this as my computer’s crash prevention program because it checks for problematic computer data issues. Go to My Computer and RIGHT click on Local Disk (C:) and pick Properties. Go to the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button. The computer will restart and run in Safe Mode, so don’t have any programs running when you plan on doing this either.

If you have a high speed internet connection like broadband, run a firewall. My personal favorite free firewall is ZoneAlarm, because it’s got a pretty basic UI teamed with good protection. Everyone with internet connections should have anti-virus software. I like AVG Free Edition, but that’s just me. I bet everyone here has their own preferences, so you might want to start a new thread asking opinions on the best.

Hopefully some of this helps, and good luck!

[fran]

Thank you so much!!!! Your help is very much appreciated. I can't say enough how helpful everyone on the board is. I keep learning so much.

[DDecker]

Another thing is to install and run Ad-Aware. it is a free program that keeps harmful cookies and other baddies off your computer. I run it every time I download something. Well at the end of the day mostly.

You also can back up the zip files to cd, that way if your computer does crash at least you can reload the files, you don't need them in their compressed state after you unzip them

here is the link to Ad-Aware
[url="http://www.lavasoftusa.com/"]http://www.lavasoftusa.com/[/url]

I have no affiliation with this company, just like their product