As I documented last week, I've been having intermittent problems with my Internet connection. Just when I thought I'd solved it, I woke up this morning to yet another massive slowdown.

Using the method I described previously—running SpeedTest on at least two devices—I verified that this wasn't a local hardware problem. Something was amiss with either my router, my modem, or my ISP (Comcast).

This kind of thing can be really frustrating, to say nothing of difficult to diagnose. If I call Comcast, they'll run their usual battery of tests, then tell me they can't find anything wrong.

One tool that might help: Net Uptime Monitor. True to its name, this utility helps you track when your connection is up—and, more importantly, when it's down.

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Computers may have become a lot more user-friendly over the past decade, but they’re still far from perfect—PCs require a certain amount of configuration and maintenance to operate at their full potential. Unfortunately, because we humans are also far from perfect, we frequently don’t put in the work we should, and we end up with a slower, sloppier, less secure machine as a result.

No more excuses! Whipping your PC into the best shape it can be requires but a dozen simple tasks. None are complicated, most take a matter of minutes, and all will have a major effect on how well your computer works for you. Even better, by the time you’re finished you’ll never have to worry about doing many of these tasks again.

Clean the case, keys, and display

The first task is the most basic: Are you keeping your computer clean? It’s not just important because a dirty PC looks gross, or is less pleasant to use. Simply put, a clean computer can last longer. Dirt and dust buildup in and around your computer can clog the fans and air intakes, causing your hardware to run hotter, which lowers its expected life span. So if your PC is looking a little musty, take the time to clean it.

Photograph by Robert Cardin

To do so, you need to have only a few things on hand: a Phillips-head screwdriver, a can of compressed air, paper towels, and rubbing alcohol.

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If you have a hard drive that is quickly approaching capacity, sorting through the files and folders for the ones taking up the most space can be a really time-consuming process. There’s an easier way to do it—it’s the subject of our latest Tech Tip.

For help identifying space hogs, let’s turn to TreeSize Free, which is available for Windows 8, as well as Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Launch the program, go to scan, and select the drive you want to take a look at. The application shows you, in gigabytes, megabytes, and kilobytes, how big each folder is, ranked from most to least.

One of the nice things you can do with TreeSize Free is drill down into subfolders to see what sort of space is being taken up. If I want to right click on a folder and see what the files are like or delete them, I can go ahead and do that.

Note that TreeSize Free does not dynamically update, so after you delete the data you’ll have to run the scan again to get an accurate count of files and data being stored.

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If you're using your flash drive as a vehicle for simple file transfers, you’re missing out on one of the single-best roles one of these wee data buckets can fulfill. Indeed, hardcore enthusiasts know that simple flash drives are perfect portable repositories for all the software that can breathe life into an otherwise ailing PC.

All the web apps in the world won’t help you when your PC breaks down or falls prey to a particularly nasty piece of malware and refuses connect to the Internet. A properly loaded USB drive, on the other hand, can be a machine saver. And when your grandma calls with a dire PC emergency, you'll be glad to have an always-ready "ninja drive" to slip into your pocket as you run out the door.

In this article we’ll show you how to load out a USB drive with everything you need in case of a PC emergency. So next time your computer breaks down, don’t panic. Instead, take a deep breath, plug in your ninja drive, and start making things right.

PortableApps

The first thing you’ll want to install on your drive is PortableApps—a free, open source platform for installing desktop applications on removable media, like a USB drive. PortableApps manages the installation of new portable software on your USB drive, and also acts as a frontend when you’re actually using the USB drive, letting you easily browse and launch applications.

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One thing you might have noticed about Windows 8 is its new boot loader (i.e. the screen that appears shortly after you start your PC). It has a graphical interface, which is nice, but it's not great for anyone who prefers a dual- or multi-boot setup, and it also makes it a little harder to get to advanced boot options.

Boot UI Tuner is a free utility that gives you greater control over Windows 8's boot options. (WARNING: When you click through to the developer's download page, make sure you don't click the blue Download button. That's an ad banner. Instead, scroll down near the bottom of the page and choose the gray Download button.)

This tiny, portable program (meaning it doesn't need to be installed—you simply run it) comes in both 32- and 64-bit versions.

When you first go to run it, you'll likely encounter interference from Windows 8's SmartScreen, which will tag it as an "unknown" program and prevent it from loading. However, you can click More Info and then Run Anyway to get things moving.

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iTunes 11, which arrived last week, brought some big changes with it. And for the last few days I've been helping you work around some of those changes, like restoring the iTunes sidebar and even returning to iTunes 10.

Today let's talk about another iTunes 11 curiosity: the software no longer includes the option to find duplicates in your song library.

That's a bummer, because it definitely came in handy when working with large libraries accumulated over the course of many years.

Thankfully, there are other ways to de-dupe an iTunes library. For example, you could install a utility like TuneUp, which can not only find and eliminate duplicate tracks, but also fix mislabeled songs, find missing cover art, show song lyrics, and much more.

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Just because you’re on a smartphone or tablet doesn’t mean you can’t print. In a few easy steps, you can set up Google Cloud Print to print from just about any mobile device.

For more extensive mobile printing tips, see PCWorld’s definitive guide to mobile printing

The first thing you need to do is sit down at a desktop or laptop that’s already connected to a printer. Sign into your Chrome browser and go to the Cloud Print page to set up the printers and mobile devices so they match your preferences.

Back on your Android device, go to Google Play and download Cloud Print. It’s a free app. (For iOS users, there are apps out there for you, too—this Macworld video looks at using Printopia to print from you iPhone or iPad.) Once you’re in Cloud Print, you can open something in Google Drive, Dropbox, Google Calendar, or even Mail and send it to the printer that’s linked to your desktop or laptop.

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You may have heard that Windows 7 widgets and other desktop gadgets could go the way of the dodo in Windows 8. According to Microsoft, you shouldn't even be using desktop gadgets in Windows 7 or Vista because nefarious hackers could use them to gain control of your PC. So what's a poor, lazy computer user who wants to track CPU usage and local weather at a glance supposed to do?

Simple: Install Rainmeter, a free desktop widget utility that's superior to the native Windows gadgets in almost every way.

Of course, Rainmeter's not that simple. In fact, it isn't especially user-friendly, though you'll find that it's fairly straightforward once you get your sea legs under you. That's where this guide comes in.

The first thing to consider is vocabulary. Rainmeter lingo differs a bit from the terminology commonly used by techies: for example, what most people would call a widget or a gadget, Rainmeter calls a skin. In Rainmeter parlance, a group of skins with a similar visual theme is a skin suite. And finally, Rainmeter calls a particular group of skins and their layout a theme.

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In recent weeks my laptop has developed the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Actually, it's more of a Black Screen of Death: at seemingly random times, the screen will suddenly go black, forcing me to manually power down and reboot.

But make no mistake: this is still a BSOD, just without the blue error screen. Of course, if you've ever encountered one yourself, you know that it often disappears almost instantly. So much for writing down the specific error message, which could help in troubleshooting the problem.

All this brings me to BlueScreenView, a free utility that helps you investigate and diagnose the causes of BSODs.

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Much as Windows' power-management capabilities have improved over the years, the OS still doesn't tell you much about your battery.

In fact, from what I can see of Windows 8, Microsoft hasn't changed anything about battery status reporting.

That's why I continue to be a huge fan of BatteryBar, a superb power gauge that's compatible with XP, Vista, and Windows 7. (Presumably the developer will add Windows 8 support as well when the time comes. Alas, Microsoft didn't follow my advice and build BatterBar right into the OS.)

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The right-click context menu is one of Windows' best innovations (although Borland invented that feature years before Microsoft). But it can get out of hand. When I right-click a file, I get 25 options. Six of those are submenus filled with more options.

You can reduce that overhead by careful editing of the Registry, but there's an easier way: Use CCleaner, a free utility that's handy to keep around for a variety of reasons.

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The build doesn’t end once you've physically assembled the system, however. After putting together all of the components, you must install software on the system before it’ll do a darn thing. Unfortunately, many inexperienced builders simply slap the parts in, burn through an OS installation, and call it a day. Although that may get a PC up and running quickly, several additional steps are necessary to ensure that the computer runs reliably and at peak performance.

System builders should confirm that their components are outfitted with the latest correct firmware or BIOS revisions where applicable, as well as the best drivers. Builders should fully patch and update the operating system, too, and they should complete any tweaks needed to wring additional performance from select components.

Let's get started, shall we?

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Robert Conner asked me to define the various words for different types of programs.

Tech proliferates words like flies proliferate eggs. And they can be just as hard to track.

Here's a quick refresher on common terms for the larger program categories:

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Today I'm revisiting a topic I haven't covered in nearly three years: iTunes folder monitoring.

In an ideal world, Apple's music manager would be able to keep an eye on any folders you want, automatically adding to your library any new music it detects in those locations.

Alas, even well into version 10, iTunes can monitor only one folder: the aptly named "Automatically Add to iTunes," which gets added as an iTunes subfolder when you first install the program.

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For years I've kept my music files in a folder called MP3s. I set up the same folder on my wife's laptop, the idea being that she'd store her own music there.

Recently I decided to have a single MP3 library (stored on a network drive) that feeds both our PCs, so I needed to combine our two MP3 folders into one. Just one problem: There was overlap between them, so I couldn't just dump the contents of her MP3 folder into mine or vice-versa.

What I needed was a way to compare the contents of the two folders, then synchronize them so that each had the most up-to-date files. Then I could delete one and use the other as the "master" MP3 folder.

Doing this manually would take forever, but I found an open-source utility that handles this sort of thing perfectly: the aptly named FreeFileSync. It syncs the files in any two folders, even those on different PCs, and it's free.

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Most computer users do most of their clicking on the left side of the mouse. Many (though not all) make good use of the right button as well. And a handful leverage the middle button.

Middle button? I'm sure some of you are thinking, "My mouse doesn't have a middle button, just a scroll wheel." First lesson of the day: That wheel doubles as a button. If you don't believe me, just click it. (This is true on most mice, though there might be a few older models where the wheel is just a wheel.)

As some others of you know, you can click and hold that button, then move your mouse back and forth to scroll up and down in your Web browser. But for those who don't like that option, or just want more versatility from their mouse, allow me to introduce X-Mouse Button Control.

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Without the word bootable, the answer would be a no-brainer. You'd simply copy all of the files and folders on the disc into a .zip archive file. Then, when you needed them on disc, you'd copy them back.

The problem, of course, is that the new disc wouldn't be bootable. Not good with a Windows or Linux disc.

So instead, create an .iso file. This is basically an image backup of an optical disc--a compressed record of every bit on the CD or DVD. When you restore it, you make an exact copy of the original, including its ability to boot a PC.

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Because different types of drives use different storage methods, you need different tools to deal with each type. Solid-state drives, for instance, behave very differently from ordinary USB flash drives, hybrid hard drives (which combine a flash cache with a magnetic hard disk), or hard disk drives. This reflects the unique way that SSD firmware writes data to the drive: Wear-leveling algorithms, designed to lengthen the SSD's lifespan, cause data to be written across many different areas inside the drive.

Deleting data during everyday use doesn't remove the data from your drive; instead, it merely erases the pointer to that data. To ex­­punge data permanently, you need an app that writes ones and zeros, literally or figuratively, over your existing data. Before attempting to wipe a laptop's drive, be sure to plug in the AC adapter; if your laptop battery dies halfway through a drive wipe, the hard drive is likely to become corrupted and unusable.

For erasing a traditional magnetic hard-disk drive, try Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), a boot disk block-erasure utility that safely wipes data by overwriting every sector of the drive with random data several times before erasing everything. Because DBAN is designed to wipe magnetic hard disks, however, it often fails to fully erase flash memory, such as in a USB flash drive or an SSD. DBAN also may not work properly if your computer contains a hybrid hard-disk drive/SSD.

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A phone battery should last--even under heavy use--for the 16 or 17 hours from when you wake up until you go to bed. (I'm assuming that you recharge your phone at night.) Unfortunately, a great many phones can't always make it through the day.

But there are settings that can extend the phone's battery life. Try turning off Wi-Fi, and set your phone to not automatically sync email, your calendar, or other cloud-centered apps. If you have an Android phone, consider removing some of your widgets; since their function is to show you live data, they have to be working at all times.

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Not backing up is as crazy as not updating your antivirus software--or not wearing a seatbelt. You're begging for disaster.

There are many techniques, strategies, and programs for backing up your files. I'm not going to even try covering all the bases here. I'll just hit the most important issues and make some recommendations.

If your hard drive were to die tomorrow, what would be irreplaceable? Not Windows or Office, but your own files--your documents, spreadsheets, photographs, email, music collection, and so on. This is your data, and this is what you need to back up every day.

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For a wide variety of information, I'd go with the free, portable version of System Information for Windows (SIW). Why the portable version? Because in my opinion, you shouldn't have to install a program for this particular chore. You're not going to run it all that often.

Besides, you can put the portable version on a flash drive and use it to help other people with their computers. Indeed, if I had known that there was a portable version of SIW when I wrote The Bootable Maintenance Flash Drive, I would have included it there.

So what can you find out with SIW? All sorts of things. Click on the CPU section under Hardware, and you'll see the number of cores and logical processors, the chip's name and code name, the socket type, and whether virtual technology is enabled--to name just a few options.

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I frequently get email from frustrated readers needing tech help. Occasionally their dilemmas are interesting enough to cover here in Hassle-Free Tech (see "Reader Q&A: Gmail Without Web Access, Too Much Security" for my last roundup). This week I try to help Greg, who is in turn trying to help his in-laws with a big problem. Also this week: I review Iobit's Advanced SystemCare 5 Free, which promises to clean out your Windows system and get it running faster.

Windows Freezes at Login Screen: Hardware Problem or Windows Problem?

Reader Greg is trying to help his in-laws solve a pretty major laptop problem: "When it powers on, it comes to the login page and freezes. The mouse won’t move and I can’t type in anything into the password field. The disk access looks busy, which I know is typical when a PC starts, but even after it eventually slows down, neither the mouse nor keys will work. I tried firing it up in the various Safe Modes but the results are the same."

Greg also notes that he tried a system-recovery disk he created on a different system, but had no luck with that, either.

Problems like this can be difficult to diagnose. The fact that you're "locked out" even when booting into Safe Mode suggests there might be some kind of hardware failure, but because it sounds like the boot process is running its course in the background, there might be something else afoot.

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Proceed with caution.

That's what I always advise when people ask me about PC-optimization utilities like Ashampoo WinOptimizer 8 and CCleaner. While these tools can be helpful, they can also create problems--usually when users go overboard with the amount of "cleaning" they attempt.

I mention this only for purposes of introduction to Iobit's Advanced SystemCare 5 Free, the latest version of one of the more popular "computer healthcare" products. I recently tested it on a year-old Windows 7 system, and was very pleased with the results.

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Our work lives are creeping into our holiday time as mobile devices become an extension of our offices. More than half of office workers are planning to crank out some work over the winter holidays this year, according to a recent survey by presentation app maker SlideRocket. If you're one of them, use these tech tips to keep your life organized away from the office and maintain your sanity.

1. Plan Your Time in Advance

2. Store All Your Files in One Place Online

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As a business traveler, you typically can’t do your job without functional smartphones, laptops, power adapters and charging accessories. Add to this the stress of getting materials ready for meetings and deadlines and you can find yourself disconnected, offline, and frustrated. If you have to travel for work this holiday season, you can relate to these following issues with tech and travel.

1. Potential Loss of Your Laptop or Mobile Device

Never bring a laptop along that you aren’t willing to lose, or have damaged or confiscated. While customs and TSA officials do not randomly confiscate laptops, the hard truth is that if they see something about your laptop they don’t like, they can prevent you from taking it onto the plane. This is more of a danger on international flights than on domestic ones, but even so you should pack a tablet or a laptop that you won’t be sorry to let go of if the situation demands it.

There is a very minute chance that this will even happen according to both the TSA and customs. The TSA is primarily interested in scanning your laptop for explosive devices, and won’t even turn it on. Customs only refers a very small percentage of travelers to secondary inspection of electronics, and of those only a very few are subject to laptop searches. Even so, in the course of traveling, anything could happen to your devices, and bringing your prize MacBook Pro along for the ride may not be advisable unless you can readily afford to replace it.

[Related: How to travel like tech royalty]

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Think you might have a bad RAM module in your PC? Freeware utility MemTest86+ will run a memory diagnostic to help you find out. Before I explain more, a true story...

A few days ago my laptop froze up in a scary way: the screen turned into a mosaic of lines, boxes, and other visual oddities. I powered down, rebooted, and got back to work--only to encounter the same lockup about 20 minutes later. Uh-oh.

This wasn't some Windows glitch or malware infection, which would have resulted in the usual error messages or flaky system behavior. No, this was almost certainly a hardware problem. The laptop in question was a couple years old, and it had banged around a fair bit inside my backpack. Maybe the screen was starting to go?

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The best tool? Screen-sharing software, which allows you to take control of another person's PC (with their permission, of course). That enables you to work your tech-support magic while sitting in front of your own computer; doesn't matter if the other person is across town or across the country.

There are lots of remote-control options out there, but I think one of the best is Join.me. Though created as a collaboration tool for business users, Join.me offers super-easy screen sharing that's perfect for remote tech support.

It works like this. Let's say you're helping out your mom, who lives in Florida. All she has to do is start her browser, go to Join.me, and then click Share. That will download a tiny client program that she'll need to run. (You might need to help out with this part over the phone.)

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Here are a few practical tips for improving your computer's performance by using stock Windows utilities and a few programs you can download for free. Though the associated articles assume that you're running the latest version of Windows 7, many of them work just as well on older copies of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and even Windows XP. None of the optimization tips and tricks in this guide cost anything, so feel free to run them as often as you'd like to ensure that your computer runs lean and mean for as long as possible.

Of course the first step in optimizing your PC's performance is to figure out which programs are running and how heavily they're taxing your hardware at any given moment. Thankfully, Windows 7 comes with a slew of free utilities that you can use to pinpoint performance bottlenecks and uncover weak points like outdated driver software or missing Windows security patches. Uninstall unwanted programs and download the latest versions of your device drivers from the manufacturer's website to ensure that your hardware will deliver peak performance.

Last, keep track of how efficiently your PC sends and receives data online. With the advent of broadband data caps, monitoring the amount of bandwidth your PC uses is more important than ever. You can find lots of great free utilities to help you stay on top of how much data you're exchanging, and we explain how to monitor your bandwidth using one of our favorites tools, BitMeter OS. BitMeter OS runs silently in the background while you surf the Web, gathering detailed records on how much information you upload and download, without paying attention to the content. Use it alongside the other free utilities mentioned here to wrangle peak performance from your PC.

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No, you can't. You have to back up your computers when they're running. There's really no way around that.

Unfortunately, a lot of backup programs, antivirus programs, and other maintenance tools default to running certain chores in the wee hours of the morning. The idea is that since you won't be up working, you won't be bothered when these chores slow down your PC.

The problem, of course, is that this convention assumes that you leave your PC on 24/7. As I described in the previous article, there's really no good reason to do that, and several reasons not to.

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