How to Tease Top Performance Out of Your Windows Laptop

Much like cars, Windows PCs need an occasional servicing to keep running at their best. That can mean replacing the battery, freeing up disk space, defragmenting and more. For example, older, nickel cadmium laptop batteries were never designed to be left endlessly plugged in -- as we all do with our laptops -- and often die before the laptop does.

If you're noticing that your Windows laptop runs slower and crankier the older it gets -- I'm talking about your laptop here, not you or me -- it's probably because it needs a bit of maintenance.

Some tender loving care will take care of most old-laptop lethargy in much the same way a routine service visit can extend the life of your car and let it operate with more vroom.

Here's how to fix your laptop. 

Step 1:

Buy a new battery if your laptop is no longer portable and needs to be tethered to the wall.

Older, nickel cadmium laptop batteries were never designed to be left endlessly plugged in -- as we all do with our laptops -- and often die before the laptop does.

Tip: Remove the battery pack from the under side of the laptop and perform a search for the model number on the Internet.

Choose newer Lithium Ion, or Li-ion, battery chemistry, if you can find that option, for the least weight and limited memory effect.

Step 2:

Run Windows Maintenance Tasks by opening the Control Panel in Windows 7 (older Microsoft operating systems are similar), and browsing to System & Security and then Find and Fix Problems.

Select Run Maintenance Tasks and allow the troubleshooter to run.

Tip: Run Maintenance Tasks will correct maintenance issues like excessive unused files and shortcuts.

Step 3:

Free up disk space by returning to the Control Panel home page and browsing to System & Security again. Choose Free Up Disk Space from the Administrative Tools area. The cleanup will run and prompt you to delete redundant files.

Tip: Freeing up disk space provides more elbow room within the hard drive.

Step 4:

Remove programs that you don't use by selecting Free Up Disk Space again. This time, choose Clean Up System Files and then the More Options tab.

Allow the list to populate and uninstall programs you don't use by double-clicking on the program label.

Tip: Programs take up space on the hard drive. As with the previous step, making space helps the laptop. Plus, fewer programs loading on laptop startup frees RAM.

Step 5:

Defragment the hard drive by choosing the Defragment your Hard Drive option label adjacent to the Free Up Disk Space label.

Click on Analyze and the tool will analyze the disk and advise you if defragmentation is necessary. Follow the prompt to perform the defragmentation.

Tip: Defragmenting physically organizes file clusters on the hard drive, making the day-to-day file reading faster.

Step 6:

Turn on Windows Update by clicking on Automatic Updating On or Off within the same System & Security section of the Control Panel, and choosing Install Updates Automatically.

Tip: Windows Update is a Microsoft service that pushes bug fixes and enhancements to the laptop.

Ensure the computer is running and online at the scheduled check time. Follow any prompts.

Step 7:

Install antivirus software. Browse to the Microsoft Windows Consumer Security Software Providers Web page and choose an antivirus application. I've had success with the free AVG product, but others are available too.

Follow the prompts to install the product and allow a scan to take place. Follow any prompts to repair virus damage.

Tip: You may have to delve deep into some of the antivirus websites to find the free version of the product.

Step 8:

Install maintenance software. I've used IObit's free Advanced SystemCare, which has corrected issues for me.

Browse to the IObit website for the download. Install the application and allow it to perform a Smart Scan. Smart Scan will identify and remove malware, fix registry issues and scan the disk for errors, among other optimizations.

Tip: The paid version of Advanced SystemCare provides more in-depth fixes.

Museum celebrates women in computing

Many of the first computers were developed during wartime and women were intimately involved in their creation and operation. Here Dorothy Du Boisson and Elsie Booker operate Colossus as it cracks codes.

The National Museum of Computing has opened a gallery celebrating the role of women in computer history.

Sponsored by Google, it documents the important role women have played in building and programming pioneering computers.

The idea for the gallery arose when the Museum found that only 10% of students on its educational courses were women.

It is hoped that the gallery will help to inspire more young women and girls to take up a job in the computer world.

"Girls must take advantage of the revival of computing in schools and recognise and grab the opportunities that our wonderful sector offers," said Dame Stephanie Shirley at the opening ceremony for the gallery.

The Museum is sited in the grounds of Bletchley Park, the wartime code-cracking centre.

On show at the gallery are contributions from Joyce Wheeler, one of the first academics to use the Edsac computer; Mary Coombs, the first female programmer for the Lyons Electronic Office and Kathleen Booth, an academic who wrote the first book about programming in Assembly language.

Margaret Bullen, who helped wire up the original Colossus at Bletchley Park during World War II, attended the opening of the Heroines of Computing gallery.

Also attending on the opening day was Joyce Wheeler, a scientist who was one of the earliest users of the Edsac computer at Cambridge

Built in 1949, Edsac (the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was developed to be the mathematical workhorse for Cambridge scientists.

The gallery also celebrates Mary Coombs, one of the first programmers of the Leo (Lyons Electronic Office) a machine that was based largely on the Edsac design.

 

 

 

The Women in Computing gallery was created as part of a larger project to inspire girls to take up programming. The Museum is running workshops and other events to get younger women interested and involved.

Robo-mate exoskeleton under development in Europe

Efforts to develop an exoskeleton for the workplace are under way, backed by EU funds.

Twelve research institutions from seven European countries are involved in the Robo-mate project, which hopes to test a robotic suit that can be worn by factory employees within three years.
They say the machine could reduce the number of work-related injuries.

One expert warned employers would need to be convinced the equipment would not pose safety issues of its own.

Manufacturers including Italian carmaker Fiat and the French vehicle recycler Indra are working with the teams.

The companies will suggest situations in which the tech could prove useful and have also said they would help test it.

The EU has committed 4.5m euros (£6m; £3.8m) to the scheme.

Heavy weights

The project aims to address the fact that many manufacturing tasks are difficult to automate.

For example Indra has to deconstruct many different types of car, and at present humans, rather than robots, are the only ones capable of handling the complexity of the choices involved.

Because of the weights involved, this can put staff at risk of developing medical problems.

"People have to manipulate parts or components that weigh more than 10kg [22lb]," said Dr Carmen Constantinescu, from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, one of the organisations involved.

"These activities are not carried out just once per day, but are repetitive.

"An exoskeleton with a human inside represents a new type of research for the manufacturing industry.

"It offers a hybrid approach in which the robotic parts support the human who can provide the decisions and cognition needed."

The partners have highlighted a study by the UK's Work Foundation think tank that suggested as many as 44 million people in the EU have suffered work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

Not all would be preventable by such an exoskeleton, and one of the other researchers involved said part of the challenge would be indentifying where the tech could prove useful.

"One area would be, is it useful to lift heavy loads?" Prof Darwin Caldwell, from King's College London, told the BBC.

"The other is situations when people are working above their head.

"If you hold a paint brush or a screwdriver above your head for more than two to three minutes your arms become very fatigued and it can be very bad for your heart."

However, he said the engineering teams were mindful of the risks involved.

"At the minute the motors or hydraulic systems required tend to be rather large and clumsy," Prof Caldwell said. "What we have to do is find ways to miniaturise those.

"What we also have to remember is that an exoskeleton is essentially a robot in physical contact with a human.

"That raises safety issues so we will be looking at making the interaction between the two softer and more organic - it won't be like having a large industrial robot which is dangerous."

The researchers have already suggested some of the technologies they plan to include

One roboticist who is not involved in the project said he expected such technology to become commonplace within the next two to three decades.

"A number of exoskeletons have been developed for military use in the US, and for helping the disabled and frail older people to walk again in Japan - industrial use is an obvious next step," said Prof Noel Sharkey, from the University of Sheffield.

"But one hard problem is how the human user interfaces with the device. It is vital that the operator can perform dextrously with natural movements without having to think about it.

"Another problem is how to work in environments with other humans without hurting them. This will require new natural collision avoidance methods."

Steve Jobs' last gift

One of Steve Jobs' last gifts was left in a brown box and handed out at his memorial service.

Inside the brown box was a copy of "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Hindu guru Paramahansa Yogananda. The book was about self realization, Salesforce (CRM) CEO Mark Benioff told an audience at annual tech conference TechCrunch Disrupt. Benioff, who wrote some of the first code for the Macintosh, was one of Jobs' closest friends and colleagues.

"That was his message," Benioff said. "Actualize yourself.... He had this incredible realization that his intuition was his greatest gift, and he needed to look at the world from inside out."

Benioff emphasized the spiritual side of Jobs' personality, a trait he says is often lost in the books and movies recounting Jobs' legacy.

Before Jobs passed away in October 2011 , the Apple founder knew the people who would attend his memorial. Known for his vision and precision, Jobs organized the speakers, the attendees, and the performers, Bono and Yo-Yo Ma would play at a memorial service as planned, Benioff recounted. On the way out, each guest received the gift. 

 "I knew that this was a decision that he made that everyone was going to get this," Benioff, said. "Whatever this was, was the last thing he wanted us to all think about." 

Benioff suggested the tech giant do some of its own soul searching at a time when the company is no longer positioned as the clear front-runner in a market it once dominated.

Samsung and Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) Android devices are outselling Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) landmark products like the iPhone and iPad, and shares of the tech company have tumbled 30% over the last year. Benioff said Apple should understand the importance of the gift left to Jobs' friends and colleagues.

"For [Apple], they need to find themselves and be who they are," Benioff, said. "In many ways they're still trying to be him. They just need to be who they are truly. Respect the past, and, as Steve would say, 'Project the future.'"

How iPhone 5S makes your finger into a password

The most impressive feature of the new iPhone 5S may be its ability to turn your finger into a password.

Touch ID is Apple's name for a new fingerprint scanner that would act as a security tool for log-ins and for making purchases from iTunes and other Apple stores.

"Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world," said Dan Riccio, a senior vice president for hardware design at Apple, in a promotional video. "It's always with you and no two are exactly alike."

Apple unveiled the iPhone 5S, along with a cheaper, simpler iPhone 5C, at an event Tuesday at the company's California headquarters.

On the new 5S, the Home button will be made of sapphire crystal and act as a reader. According to Apple a fingerprint -- up to five prints from different users, depending on who else shares your phone -- can be read by the sensor from any angle to give access the same way a password does currently.

The fingerprint data is encrypted, Riccio said, and stored internally on the phone.

"It's never available to other software and it's never stored on Apple's servers or backed up to iCloud," he said.

The iPhone isn't the first phone to have a fingerprint sensor. In 2011, the Motorola ATRIX 4G included one, though adoption among users wasn't particularly high and the company eventually discontinued the feature. And at least one Android phone to be released this year also will have the technology, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Some laptops and PCs have had fingerprint readers for several years now. But the technology has never really caught on, with users often complaining about them being balky and unreliable.

Maybe Apple can change that.

"Fingerprint sensors have come a long way," said Michael Barrett, president of the Fast Identity Online Alliance, an industry group advocating for universal security authentication tools. "They are by and large much better quality now and very readily able to detect 'Is this just an image of a finger or a real-life finger?'"

But while he called Touch ID "an exciting announcement," Barrett still sees some problems.

First, he said, fingerprint scanning still isn't perfect. He mentioned his wife, an artist, who has trouble accessing her PC with a fingerprint scanner when she's been working with plaster, which dries out her hands.

"Like many biometrics, it falls slightly into 'your mileage may vary,'" he said. "If it works for you, great. But it may not work for you all the time."

The former chief information security officer at PayPal, Barrett also sees limitations to using the system for online purchases. While it may work fine on iTunes or in the App Store, it's not likely other Web retailers are going to spend millions of dollars to make their systems accommodate an Apple feature used on fewer than 17 percent of the world's smartphones.

That means iPhone 5S owners who used Touch ID for purchases inside Apple's "walled garden" would still need to use other security tools to shop elsewhere with the same phone.

David Rogers, director of the Columbia Business School's Digital Marketing program and executive director of its Center for Global Brand Leadership, called Touch ID one of several "nice," but ultimately underwhelming, features on the iPhone 5S.

"Touch ID ... could have been that killer app. But so far, it's just a feature that saves you a couple seconds logging in," he said.

"If they can manage to link it to multiple profiles on a device, like the new Google Nexus tablets, or make it a password to controlling smart devices in the home -- your stereo, thermostat, etc. -- that could make for a truly killer feature. But they just didn't get there today."

Paco Hope, principal consultant at software security firm Cigital, said that, if nothing else, Apple will widely expand the public's understanding of the use of biometrics in the digital world.

"People's ideas about biometrics were as informed by Hollywood as they were by real products and experiences," he said. "Now, when someone asks the value of a fingerprint scanner, we can point to the iPhone and use it as a reference, for better or worse.

"Esoteric and academic theories of usability, reliability, false positives, false negatives, and so on will suddenly be tested by millions of real users in real situations."

Developers force Microsoft to release Windows 8.1 early

An outcry by programmers has forced Microsoft to give them early access to Windows 8.1.

An outcry by programmers has forced Microsoft to give them early access to Windows 8.1.

The furore came after Microsoft announced that developers would get the new release at the same time as everyone else.

That marked a change from established practice which saw certified developers get early access to new versions.

Microsoft has now given coders access to 8.1 so they can start testing and developing before the public release.

Programmers who subscribed to Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN developer services historically got early access so they could ensure code for their own applications was not broken by the new versions of Windows.

Microsoft's strong developer community were unhappy with the change Microsoft made with 8.1, particularly as the new version made changes to its appearance and the way programs can work with it.

Windows 8.1 is due to be released to the public on 18 October. The version that will ship to customers has been ready since late August.

One of the more visible changes in Windows 8.1 will be to make the start button more obvious.

As Windows 8 was largely created to serve touchscreen devices such as tablets, the start button was far less prominent in the original release of the software.

Windows 8.1 will see the button partially restored and allow users to choose whether to stick with a touchscreen display or revert to the more familiar control system seen in desktop and laptop computers. A mouse click on the lower left corner of the screen will let them switch between the two interface styles.

In addition, the start button will always be visible when working with the desktop version of Windows 8.1.

US NSA and UK GCHQ 'can spy on smartphones'

German privacy campaigners have welcomed Edward Snowden's disclosures about NSA surveillance

The US National Security Agency (NSA) is reported have cracked the security codes which protect data on iPhones, Blackberries and Android devices. 

German news weekly Der Spiegel says documents suggest the NSA and the British GCHQ made joint efforts to gather intelligence.

Teams looked at each phone to crack its privacy codes, Der Spiegel said.

Saturday saw thousands of demonstrators in Berlin demand that the NSA stop monitoring internet users.

 Codes unlocked

The documents Spiegel has seen do not show whether or not there has been mass surveillance of phone use.

Once the intelligence teams had unlocked the codes, agencies could read a user's contacts and lists of who had been called.

The BBC's Steve Evans in Berlin says the reports do seem to indicate that the British and American security agencies have the ability to read private communications beyond what might have previously been thought possible - or desirable by those who fear the intrusion of the state.

The magazine did not explain how it had obtained the documents.

Protesters in Berlin demanded the NSA "stop watching us"

But one of the authors of the article, Laura Poitras, is an American filmmaker with close contacts to the NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

'Champagne'

According to the documents seen by Der Spiegel, the Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry phones began using a new method to compress the data in May 2009.

Intelligence agents were unable to access some information on BlackBerry phones for about a year afterwards, the Associated Press news agency said.

Der Spiegel's article said that GCHQ then cracked the problem, too - and analysts celebrated their achievement with the word "Champagne".

A stream of recent revelations about international data surveillance has ignited a heated debate in Germany about the country's co-operation with the United States in intelligence matters.