Dell Recovery Disks

If they dont have the disc set you’re in need of listed on their website, than they can source it for you by contacting their service department at (800) 896-2363.

If you do not use the Language Bar, you can terminate this process to free up system resources.

If Windows is running slowly, you can speed it up by disabling some of its visual effects. It comes down to appearance versus performance. Would you rather have Windows run faster or look prettier? If your PC is fast enough, you don’t have to make this tradeoff, but if your computer is just barely powerful enough for Windows Vista, it can be useful to scale back on the visual bells and whistles.

You can choose which visual effects to turn off, one by one, or you can let Windows choose a bunch for you. There are 20 visual effects you can control, such as the transparent glass look, the way menus open or close, and whether shadows are displayed.

The Performance Options dialog box lets you turn on or off up to 20 visual effects

To adjust all visual effects for best performance:

A toolbar is usually located at the top of all Windows-based applications and it is basically a collection of buttons that enable users to perform various related tasks. Applications, such as Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word come with many built-in toolbars that you can display or remove per your requirements. However, the built-in toolbars have limited functionalities, especially in Internet Explorer. To resolve this problem and to enhance your Internet browsing experience, you can install third-party add-on toolbars to your Internet Explorer. Some of the popular toolbars that you can choose from are Google toolbar, Windows Live toolbar, and Yahoo toolbar.

What are the features of these toolbars?

There are several features that may inspire you to install an add-on toolbar to your Internet Explorer. These features:

How to Remove Toolbars from Internet Explorer

Before moving ahead with learning toolbar removal steps, let’s first investigate the reasons that may force you to uninstall a toolbar.

Many of us want to uninstall these toolbars because they get installed without our knowledge. For example, the option to install Windows Live and Yahoo toolbars is included in the setup process of their respective Instant Messengers. If you fail to clear the appropriate option the toolbars will be installed on your system. Having too many toolbars may not only clutter the Internet Explorer window, but may also affect your Internet browsing speed.

Additionally, many toolbars, such as the Mirar toolbar, are actually spyware and will stealthily install on your system to track your Web browsing and PC activity and trade the collected information with various affiliate websites for advertising purposes. These malicious toolbars also display adware on your system without your consent and add several files and registry entries to your system, which considerably slows down your PC.

To uninstall add-on toolbars from your Internet Explorer, perform the following steps:

To ensure complete uninstallation, you must follow up the above steps with a registry cleanup. You can use a registry cleaner tool to do this. A registry cleaner tool will enable you to scan the entire registry for any orphan files left behind by the uninstalled toolbars and ensure you of a complete toolbar removal. Registry cleaning is especially useful when you are uninstalling spyware toolbars because these toolbars add many hidden entries into the registry, which enables them to reinstall on your system even after you have uninstalled them. To get rid of spyware and adware toolbars, you may also run an antispyware scan on your system. These tools are useful in combating any kind of spyware programs including spyware toolbars and make it easy for you to get rid of them.

Cisco announced Thursday that it will offer $3 billion in cash to acquire Tandberg, a global supplier of video communications equipment.

Based in Oslo, Norway, and in New York, Tandberg provides video networking hardware and software to a wide range of companies looking for teleconferencing and telepresence systems. Tandberg’s products range from low-cost desktop tools to high-end conferencing systems.

Cisco has already wet its feet in the worlds of video and telepresence. Two of Cisco’s many acquisitions in the last several years–Scientific-Atlanta and Arroyo–furthered the company’s grasp of this segment.

But as video becomes increasingly important to enterprise customers, the network giant wants to carve off a greater piece of the multibillion teleconferencing market by integrating Tandberg’s technology with its own.

“Cisco and Tandberg have remarkably similar cultures and a shared vision to change the way the world works through collaboration and video communications technologies,” Cisco CEO John Chambers said in a statement. “Collaboration is a $34 billion market and is growing rapidly–enabled by networked Web 2.0 technologies.”

Once the deal is done, Tandberg CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will lead the new TelePresence Technology Group, reporting to Marthin de Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group. Cisco said that Tandberg’s 1,500 employees will be “extremely important” in fostering growth and innovation for Cisco’s video team.

Under the agreement, Cisco will launch a cash tender offer to buy all the outstanding shares of Tandberg for 153.5 Norwegian kroner ($26.45) per share, which comes to a total price of approximately $3 billion. The offer represents a 25 percent premium to the three-month average closing price for Tandberg stock. The proposal has already been unanimously recommended by Tandberg’s board.

Subject to the usual regulatory scrutiny, Cisco expects the deal to close during the first half of 2010.

Computer Maintenance Checklist

When you set up your new system:

1. Install a surge protector or use a power strip with emergency shutdown ability
2. Follow manufacturers recommendations on registering your products and software (ie printers, digital cameras, Microsoft Office, etc)
3. Be sure your automatic updates for Windows are configured and operating correctly
4. Read and become familiar with the regular maintenance for your particular computer
5. Choose settings in your email set-up that automatically archive your old email (if using Outlook, Express, Windows Mail, etc)
6. Install and setup an effective anti-virus software
7. Install and setup an effective anti-adware software
8. Save your hardware drivers disk that came with your machine in a safe place

Weekly:

1. Run CHKDSK to scan and check for any hard drive issues
2. Defragment your computers hard drive using the on board utility Disk Defragment
3. Run Disk Cleanup to delete any inused or temporary files
4. Back up your files to a remote location
5. Empty your recycle bin
6. Delete your Internet files
7. Erase your browsing history
8. Delete your cookies
9. Update the software in your anti-virus and anti-adware programs
10. Start and Run a full disk check using your anti-virus and anti-adware software

Monthly

1. Check for updates with Windows Update
2. Delete/uninstall unneeded or unused programs in the Remove Programs section in the control panel

Quarterly

1. Dust your keyboard
2. Dust and clean your monitor
3. Dust you peripherals (printer, speakers, digital cameras, the computer itself)
4. Rebuild your desktop
5. Change all your passwords

Yearly

1. Renew all your anti-virus and anti-adware software licenses (if applicable)

Today (September 29) a Federal court reversed an earlier ruling that Microsofts activation technology for their products infringed on another company’s patent. This ruling resulted in the overturning of a $388 million verdict.

The Federal court vacated the earlier decision and decided in favor of Microsoft.

“We are pleased that the court has vacated the jury verdict and entered judgment in favor of Microsoft,” Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a statement.

Tuesday’s ruling is the latest twist in a case that has had plenty of them. Microsoft initially won a summary judgment ruling, which would have ended the case in its favor, but Uniloc appealed that ruling and a federal appeals court last year ruled that the case needed to go to trial with regard to two counts.

The victory in the Uniloc case comes as Microsoft is awaiting the result of an appeal in another patent case in which the custom XML feature in recent versions of Word was found to infringe on patents held by Canada’s I4i. If it fails in its appeal bid, Microsoft faces damages of more than $200 million in that case as well as an injunction that would halt sales of word with the infringing feature.

Regarding the integrity of this software, it is open source, free of any adware or bloatware and is sure to please! Used in conjunction with other adware/malware removal tools this is a great piece of software to have and use.

You can download this software by going to Google and typing in ClamWin Portable or by contacting our online computer support department.