#seriously check what runs on startup and use firefox

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So, your Windows computer is running sluggish. What do you do?

Many computer repair services offer “tune ups” of your computer. But do these tune up services work? Let’s look at what a tune up of your PC should look like so you can see what’s involved.

At this point, assume the PC is infected with malware and use proper precautions so you do not infect other computers. If you know for sure that you are infected with Malware, then my next article will deal with that specifically. For now, lets assume we are simply experiencing sluggishness or a slow computer that may be caused by Malware or it may be caused by a few other things.

The first step in a tune up is to inspect the inside of the machine. That will usually mean to “Blow out the dust” in addition to inspecting all fans, intake grills, outgo grills, and heatsink fins. All should be cleaned as necessary. Ditto for the heatsink on the graphics processing unit or GPU.

Will the PC Boot? Time for a Boot Test. Once booted up successfully(hopefully), a system assessment can be made. The technician will have diagnostic software to load at this time which will show all the various aspects of a running computer, including the hard drive capacities, the overall hard drive health, detailed software, hardware, network and security configurations.

We want to see if there are memory issues at the hardware level. Thus, memory tests will be run at this time. Bad RAM memory modules are possible although rare.

Before anything is changed, a Full image backup of your hard drive(s) is done. We don’t want to lose any files if serious problems occur so we back everything up.

Other visual inspections may be made where the battery on the motherboard, the motherboard itself, the temperature is checked, and for laptops we want to inspect the keyboard itself. Making sure the “Fn” key works. The units time and date are verified.

Then we might turn towards the software and look at the User Account Control (UAC) and make sure it is turned on and set properly. Power settings are looked at. Screensaver timeout changed back to NONE. System protection is looked at and changed to ON. These are your critically important system restore points. Make sure there is only one running restore program and only one drive C drive! Windows lets us “create” a restore point whenever we wish.

More software tools can be implemented to clean up the file system, to remove temp files, cookies, etc. All files are deleted in the downloads folder as well. And if there is a WINDOWS.OLD folder, it has got to go. That’s doing nothing but taking up space and slowing things down.

Let’s now connect to the internet and let’s make sure Windows Firewall settings are on. Third-party firewalls may be present which is unfortunate but ok. Its just not recommended since Windows has a firewall built right in Windows.

Usually this is a good time to perform Malware scans. Its not simply as easy as running a software program. Usually I will run 5 different programs because no one program can do it all.

A BIOS upgrade is next. Your BIOS is that dark screen right before Windows boots. It resides on your motherboard and is very important to not just performance but to whether your PC boots up or not. These computer files get updated and new BIOS configurations become available. Its not the easiest upgrade as a ‘flash install’ is needed. These are tricky maneuvers because they are done outside of a Windowed environment, however, a current BIOS is usually recommended.

Supposing we tossed the old BIOS in favor of the new one, why don’t we continue this organizing and look to delete other software programs? Old Adobe reader programs, Flash, Java, and other programs litter our hard drives and slow our system down. This include any Anti-Malware “suites” other than Windows Defender (Windows’ excellent built-in antivirus/malware program).

So, scans are complete. How about the internet connection and speed? And let’s run Windows Update to make sure all the updates are done. We keep re-running windows update until there are no more updates. Plus, I would check in Windows settings or run a program called WINVER to confirm the version of Windows is at least 1709 or higher. Microsoft updates Windows about twice a year and 1709 was a big one.

Device conflicts are inspected and fixed if any are found. These are those pesky Red X’s or Question Marks on top of these devices. They need to be fixed, all of them, before continuing.

Hard disk inspections using different scanning software will be used to see if any large file blocks or defragmentation shows up. Windows 10 shouldn’t have any defrag problems, but it needs to be checked anyway. Warning: Never defrag a solid-state drive (SSD) drive!

Optimizing the Folder View Options can be next. These are found in control panel and there is a half dozen or so checkboxes that should be checked (not all of them) to help achieve a smoother running machine. Similarly, visiting System Properties, Computer name, Startup and Recovery, and Virtual Memory will help to make sure various settings are either ‘checked’ or ‘unchecked’ properly.

Disable Autoplay. Thanks to bad design decisions, Autoplay, also known as AutoRun, was once a huge security problem on Windows. Autoplay helpfully allowed malicious software to launch as soon as you inserted discs and USB drives into your computer. Windows 10 largely fixed the issue, but it is still a good idea to disable it.

You can also optimize your mouse and touchpad controls as well. Turning off a lot of the eye candy will help your performance.

You can apply these optimization activities over to your display and to the Desktop to achieve similar gains. For example, turning off ‘transparency effect’ will help. And the desktop should be no more than 500MB (not GB) in size.

There are lots of places where Microsoft is selling you something. You can remove these too. As an example, under settings>System>Notifications&Actions you can turn OFF “Get Tips, Tricks, and Suggestions as you use Windows”. You don’t need this.

There are a lot of optimizations you can do to Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome too. Mostly these deal with getting rid of all the cache, how to deal with cookies, and whether you are clearing browsing history when you exit.

If you don’t have an email program like Outlook, we can install Thunderbird and usually do. Its free and is an impressive program. Ditto for an Office Suite. LIBRE Office is free and a worthy competitor to Microsoft Office. If you want these programs installed, just remember to change the default Office program (control panel>default programs).

Clear all the event logs and system logs in Event viewer. Rerun file and disk utilities. Run Anti-Malware updates and scans again. Run “Six-Shooter” which is a collection of six utilities to further weed out any malware in the system.

The system can now be tested to make sure all parts are working as designed and any problems fixed. Browsers can be tested. File Types (.doc, .docx, .ppsx, .ppt, & .pptx) can be opened and closed to see if the file associations work. Play a video file. Make sure the CD player works. Things like that. Check the sounds.

A final run of system diagnostic software will close this up. This will provide a snapshot of what your system looks like now, post optimization.

This has also been a hardware inspection. Thus, your technician can share thoughts or give advice on the sun-setting of certain hardware and the need to, perhaps, upgrade something if for nothing else than to achieve better security. For example, perhaps they are running Windows 10 version 1709 when version 1809 is available. Or maybe their CPU is so old, you can only play black and white media on it. Seriously though, computer hardware is a depreciating asset. It comes into favor and then it goes out of favor. You cannot simply buy one piece of hardware and stick with it for 30 years.

Now, having said this, I just extended the life of my TEN YR OLD MacBook Pro by adding an SSD drive and reinstalling the operating system. For a ten-year-old, she sure acts like a newborn! I may have extended the life a little bit, but I am still running about four versions of operating system behind the current version(not to mention the ancient CPU). That’s because Apple doesn’t support my aging hardware anymore. Microsoft is no different.

From a security standpoint, this becomes untenable and I better get to the store to replace my MacBook soon. Luckily, however, I just purchased a brand new Razer Blade 15 Windows Laptop! In my line of work i need to have both a Mac and a Windows computer at all times.

Andrew C. Orr is President of Retired Guy Computer Repair located in downtown St. Petersburg, FL. His company provides individuals and businesses quality and competent technology solutions. Andrew lives downtown with his wife Angela, his son Andrew Jr., and two dogs Georgia and William. www.RetiredGuy.repair.

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More Great WordPress Parallax Themes TopNotch Themes | Templified

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More Great WordPress Parallax Themes TopNotch Themes

Awesome

  Hi, I’m awesome.  I’m one of those WordPress parallax themes you’ve heard so much about.  I’m packed with features and functionality you might expect to find only in a theme that costs twice as much.  But nope, I like to keep my parallax goodness in the reach of everyone.  I’m a versatile, well-built, innovative, gorgeous and very easy to use theme that allows you to administer shipping and your inventory, advertise fresh items, sell existing items, grow your small business and get in touch with shoppers and a lot more, all with parallax style and well-crafted code.   I’ve got an idea that I’d be perfect for any business, or individual, who wants a WordPress parallax theme that looks great and functions even better.  That’s how I roll.

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Panes

  Fancy!  It’s safe to say an ideal parallax WordPress theme with solid tools and features is a amazing pick.  WordPress parallax themes like Panes?  Well, they’re astounding!  Panes makes it straightforward and fun, not to mention profitable, to create a parallax WordPress site really quickly!  It takes less than an hour, really, from start to finish.  Once you get the hang of it, it can be even quicker.   A WordPress parallax theme is an excellent way for everyone you know to concoct an expert WP parallax site that really gets attention, looking and responding just the way you need it to.  WordPress parallax themes are an exceedingly entertaining strategy to your WordPress website exciting and elegant.

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  Surreal

  Parallax WordPress portfolios come in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic appearance.  And the features can vary widely too, so it’s best to find a theme that offers a lot of what you need.  If you want a parallax WP theme with a drag and drop gallery, full screen slider, a functional and filterable masonry portfolio, CSS animation effects and parallax scrolling, Surreal might be a good fit for you.   Surreal is one of the oldest and most trusted Parallax themes on ThemeForest and the support is incredible, so you can purchase this theme with high confidence.

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Renova

  Renova is a responsive parallax one page portfolio theme with the ability to function as a multi-page theme too.  Renova is well known for it’s flat design, powerful set of shortcodes, it a really unique feature called the direction aware gallery.  So cool, seriously, check the demo and scroll down over the gallery items.  Cool, right?  How impressed are your visitors going to be?  I know I was.  Anyway, Renova is one of the most unique parallax themes I’ve seen yet.

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Candy

  Do you need a one-page theme for your website? If so, there are countless WordPress Parallax themes that you can choose from. One such theme that is highly recommended is the Candy WordPress theme. First of all, it is highly responsive. This means that your site will be accessible across multiple devices and display orientations. Also, it is compatible with different web browsers – from Chrome to Firefox – allowing for easy navigation anytime and anywhere. It has been developed using HTML5 and CSS3, and you don’t need to be a programmer to manipulate the theme. It is checked for quality, comes with 6 months of support, and is inclusive of future updates.

This is one of those WordPress Parallax themes that is ideal for businesses that want to showcase their offerings without having to beat around the bush. You can design a page for your About Us content, another for your services, and another for your contact form. It comes with the Slider Revolution feature, allowing you to highlight multiple images in one display. You can also filter your portfolio with ease. Equipped with the plugin for the Ajax contact form, you can rest assured that any form of communication online will reach you when it matters the most.

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Me

  Me is a WordPress version of one of the most popular HTML templates ever to appear on ThemeForest and it’s got some hot parallax action too.  Me is a responsive one page, parallax portfolio theme. That’s a mouthful.  Well, if you need to get your work in front of as many viewers as possible and give them all a great first impression, Me is a great theme for the job.  Lots of documentation give this theme a shallow learning curve and the helpful online video tutorials mean you’ll be online in no-time flat.  This well made, fresh, versatile, easy to use and beautiful WooCommerce WordPress theme will allow you to develop your business, advertise existing merchandise, launch new products, manage shipping and product stock and contact buyers and more.

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CrossWay

  If what you are looking for are dependable WordPress Parallax themes, then there is plenty of available options that you can try out. One such option is the CrossWay theme for WordPress. It is categorized as a Bootstrap theme that is ideal for startups in need of engaging landing pages. It is quality-checked and comes with half a year’s worth of tech support. It is also inclusive of future updates from the developer. The CrossWay theme is not only highly responsive but is retina-ready as well. Aside from accommodating varying browsers, devices, and display orientations, you can also rely on it to be accessible on most recently developed operating systems and devices.

When it comes to WordPress Parallax themes like the CrossWay theme, they are equipped with a Visual Composer feature. This means that designing a web page using this theme will be easy even if you don’t have any programming experience. Simple drag and drop functionality enables you to add the components you want and see where these will lie as the page is published online. It’s valid and clean coding also provides users with access to a functional contact form, sliders, and video plugins. It has also been localized, which means that your site will be translation-ready.

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QuickStep

  QuickStep is a responsive one page portfolio theme with parallax effects. It’s a top-selling theme on ThemeForest, a fact that I’d venture might have something to do with the fact the theme is highly customizable.  Display almost any work or services with a out of sight looking single page website. Checking out pages with parallax scrolling sections is splendid and a real eye-catcher your potential clients can like.  This theme is a absolutely perfect one page scrolling parallax theme for creative design folks that would like to show their best projects in a great new way. this cool new template will absolutely dazzle everyone with its trendy parallax animated sequences and transitions that make your site feel and act incredibly natural. The built in portfolio page is really very powerful and is simply filtered by using only a handful of clicks.

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Retro

  Retro Portfolio is a one page parallax portfolio theme with a cool and fun vintage look.  A parallax portfolio theme?  This is ‘THE’ retro portfolio theme.  Retro Portfolio has a wide range of CSS3 effects, a handy lightbox for embedding your video or multimedia files, free license for Nivo Slider, Ajax contact form and a lot more. PSD files included and I’ve heard the admin panel for customization of this parallax winner is one of the best in the business.

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Xiara

  Xiara, a smooth and stylish parallax theme, is responsive, well designed and it looks great no matter what your content is all about.  Xiara is very highly rated on ThemeForest, rocking a 4.5 rating.  Impressive and one of the higest for parallax style templates.  I guess it’s because of the stylish layout, the easy to use customization panels and the responsive layout.  Could be the Revolution Slider too.  There’s a lot to choose from.

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907

  907 is a parallax scrolling WordPress theme that has a fun layout and lots of cool features and options.  With as many demo sites as there are, I’m betting you can find something you love here.  I’ve taken a look at a lot of WordPress themes on the market and the very best parallax sites have one thing in common, parallax scrolling on the front page and lots of places for all your content.  And they need to be able to accomodate a lot of different kinds of content too, not just posts, not just promo boxes, you need a lot of different stuff.  907 fits the bill in every way.  You can swap out parallax sections page by page too, and even post by post, so things will always look and feel fresh, which makes you look like a champion.  Parallax WordPress templates have never looked so good.  The 907 WordPress theme now supports WooCommerce too, which is a nice touch.

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Vernum

  This clean and modern parallax WP theme, called Vernum, is a simple and modern approach to an age old problem: how do I create the best user experience I can and showcase my content in a fun and interesting way?  Vernum is a great solution.  It’s modern, it’s clean, it’s stylish and powerful.  Vevernum is everything you need in a theme and it’s got incredible support too, just in case you run into problems setting up the theme or you want to customize it.  Vernum a fully responsive multipurpose one pager parallax theme, but it’s also cool if you choose to use it as a multiple-page theme, clean cut and simple, yet daring and parallax WordPress theme, with clean and modern lines, bold features and a dedicated support staff who are ready, willing and able to help you with any issues that arise.  Flexibility is a real strength with Vernum, you can use the page-builder to construct just about anything you want.  This is like the world’s coolest Lego set.  Build anything!

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Make

  As we continue our quest to find the best parallax themes, we bring you ‘Make’.  Make is a responsive and retina ready theme for corporations, agencies, nonprofits and more.  If you’re a business or a freelancer, Make could be a great choice for getting a parallax design at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full time designer to create one from scratch.  Oh yeah, Bootstrap helps.  This theme is rock-solid and ready for any changes you decide to make.  The fun style and clean, crisp design makes make (get it?) one of the best parallax wordpress themes for design agencies, creative businesses, freelance designers and web designers.  But anyone can use it.  It’s just that simple.  I think nearly anybody could take this design and make it something special, no matter what kind of website.  Is it easy to use?  Oh yeah.

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Mountain

  Mountain theme (MNTN) is what I’d call a true premium WordPress parallax theme in flat-metro style. It can be used from personal blog site or portfolio to creative company website, and everything in between. MNTN is absolutely customizable too, change everything you see.  Customize each section with a unique background image and unique colors.  Add the smooth parallax scrolling pages for some real zip.  This theme is stylish, modern and epic.

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Stratus

  Stratus is an attractive App, SaaS and Product showcase theme, with optional parallax scrolling effect, WooCommerce compatibility and much more.  Stratus is a fine looking premium theme, that is really built to showcase new applications upon launch, but I think any tech savvy company could benefit from the cleanliness of this design.  The design is, of course, responsive.  At this point, that has to be a given.  There’s a pre-made conversion form, that can help build an email list even before your app launches.  The them offers the ability to turn features on and off with one click, thanks to the simple to master page builder bundled with the theme.  This theme is retina and touch optimized, which is perfect for a high tech app theme, because you need to utilize the latest technology to keep up with the competition.

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Live

Live is definitely one of its kind when it comes to amazing parallax scrolling effects, and with HTML5 and AJAX, this theme is certainly one of the best themes out in the market. Live is a staggeringly unique and interactive creative parallax theme with unlimited foreground + background parallax layers on a fully responsive layout built using Bootstrap framework version 2.3. The parallax layers can have unlimited vertical as well as horizontal scroll effect!   The responsive layout is 100% stable and tested on all mobile devices including iOS mobile devices, Windows Phone and Android. We promise the layout will not break on mobile devices.

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Passage

  A well designed WordPress parallax theme is an amazing and terrific way for designers and freelancers to have a cool WordPress parallax set up quickly.   You want to talk features?  Let’s talk features.  This straightforward to use and awesome WP theme is chock-full of some of the best features that make it simple and painless to build a parallax brand new website with no major hassles!  Tons of modular layout options.  Loads of pre-defined parallax scrolling looks.  Page animations to keep your readers engaged during their entire visit.  Parallax effects, responsive design, drop down menus, multiple sidebars and much more mean that the whole layout of this fantastic theme is totally charming and everyone will have a great time with their visit to your page.  Learn more about Passage below.

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Patti

  Patti is a modern and elegant One-Page WordPress Theme, perfect for creative people, suitable for any type of business, built for any needs. Every single detail is carefully designed and crafted, in order to create a seamless and wonderful user experience.  This trendy, very flexible, user friendly, pretty and efficient WooCommerce WordPress theme helps you advertise existing goods, get in touch with potential customers, advertise new items, expand your company and manage delivery and your stock and a lot more.

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OceanPlaza

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Capella

  Capella is a parallax WordPress restaurant theme that’s loaded with great design style and fantastic features that make it an ideal food blog, recipe blog or restaurant website.  I think Capella is bound to be a huge hit this year.  This wonderfully luscious looking, delicious and nutritious parallax theme is an awesome solution for a first class and highly helpful website for your venue, no matter if it’s a fine dining, fast food or fast casual, a diner or drive through, fish and chip shops, cultural or ethnic foods like Tex Mex or perhaps Irish pubs?  The choices are almost endless, so take your time and decide for yourself if this parallax WordPress theme is a great choice or the greatest choice for your website.

Capella is the type of theme that can save you a ton of time and energy.  At times it seems that there really is not enough work hours in the day to grow business for your restaurant, which is the reason why it usually is especially nice to consider a premium theme that has already been made.  Capella knows that and makes it easy to get your website online and customized quickly and with very little effort.  That’s an amazing feeling to save that kind of time when setting your site up.

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We’ve hand selected some of the finest WordPress parallax themes around and brought them to you in this collection.  Parallax WordPress themes are a fun and popular way to make your website stand out in a crowd of others.  These parallax templates are fantastic for business sites, portfolio pages, personal web-pages, corporate sites and pretty much anything else you can think of.  We’ve tried to find a really wide assortment of parallax scrollers so that you can get a good idea of the different options out there.

When a website is presented a little differently than some of the others out there, it can help to create a real visual impact that makes your audience take note.  That’s the concept behind these templates.  Your users have a great experience, you get better rankings from google and the other SERPs.  These eye-catching themes really do the trick.  So here they are, the best parallax WordPress themes we could find.