Home Office: Want a Faster PC? Dig In

Slow PCs aren't fun. Even my boss has figured that out, and he's not the brightest bulb in the pack. (Don't believe me, huh? I was the one who had to delete the 1500 files in his temp folder; the IT folks said they wouldn't go near his PC.)

This week I have a couple of ways for you to boost your PC's performance and a few sites you'll want to visit. Ready?

Buzzing Along With BootVis

Recently, I wrote about way cool utilities. The one I was most excited about was BootVis, a free utility from Microsoft that speeds up boot time on Windows XP machines. Unfortunately, my in-box was flooded with e-mail from grizzled vets and AOL newbies having lots of questions. To see what I'm talking about, read "A Boot Full of Windows Wonders."

So read on for a quickie FAQ [Note to editor: Frequently Asked Questions] that covers the problems some of you faced. It's good reading even if you haven't tried the utility.

What Does BootVis Do? The first thing you need to know about BootVis is that it doesn't do anything to your applications. BootVis simply tweaks the way system and start-up files are stored on the hard drive and changes the physical layout so they load during system boot up.

Installing BootVis: You download BootVis, and when you double-click on its icon, the dialog box asks you to unzip the file into a folder. Once it successfully unzips BootVis, you can't figure out what to do next. That's because Microsoft chose a really dumb unzipping program. Here's what to do: Once the unzipping tool is finished, click Close. Then go to the folder where you saved BootVis, and click the BootVis icon. Tada--up comes BootVis. This, folks, is good advice for many utilities that come with automatic zip extraction programs.

BootVis Says You're Missing a File: You're cheating. If you encounter an error saying you're missing ADVAP132.DLL, or that BootVis can't link to that DLL, you know why it's happening, right? You're trying to use BootVis with Win 98. Kids, BootVis is a utility for XP.

BootVis Complains About the Folder It's In: BootVis whines because it seems to want to reside in a folder named ptools. You can create that folder in the root directory and move BootVis over to it, or rename the folder BootVis is in. (If you don't know how to do this, you're better off not playing around with BootVis, okay?)

Tell Me More About BootVis: Microsoft has a terrific white paper, "Fast System Startup for PCs Running Windows XP." To understand BootVis more thoroughly, you'll need to read that paper. If you're a glutton for punishment (or just want to impress your spouse), read Microsoft's "Improved Boot and Logon Performance."

I Have Win ME--Got Any Speed Up Tips? You'll want to read Microsoft's "Building Fast-Booting PCs for Windows Me."

What About Us Win 98 Users? Stop complaining and download Boot Log Analyzer. It's a nifty little utility that examines the way your computer boots, looking at drivers and DLLs. You can examine the log to find slow loading drivers and DLLs and modules that failed to load, in order to root out what's slowing the boot.

Dig This: Click the links below to see what happened when an unfortunate pilot hit the wrong button at the very wrong time. [With thanks to Mike K.]

• "Noooo! Wrong button!!"
  
  
• "And here goes $80,000..."
  
  

Need More PC Tweaks?

Booting faster is good, sure, but there are other ways to make your PC perform better. I rounded up three of our best articles on how to pound your system into shape.

Writers Robert Luhn and Kirk Steers came up with "20 Tools for Trouble-Free Computing." Most valuable for me: "Diagnose PC Problems"; "Sort Your Files" (pay attention to PowerDesk 5.0); and "Classic Utilities: Tools That Have Passed the Test of Time," with Steve Gibson's must-have SpinRite 5.

Got BIOS problems? Get help from "Hardware Tips: Tweak Your PC's BIOS Settings the Safe Way." Here, Kirk goes through each part of the BIOS, explains what you see on screen, and recommends settings. Figure out how he got screen shots of the BIOS and you'll win a lunch with my boss. (Staff attorneys from Dewey, Chetum, and Howe insist I disclose that the previous sentence was a mere attempt at humor; it does not constitute a real contest.)

Finally, Lincoln Spector (yes, that's still his real name) has a really practical Answer Line item that answers the question, "What Do You Do When Windows Doesn't Boot?" But just as beneficial is "Crazy Error Messages," an item later in the column that explains what to do if you get an error when running ScanDisk.

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