April 2009 • PC Matic Blog

PC Pitstop April 2009 Newsletter

PC Matic Cybersecurity / April 24, 2009

Guide to Choosing a Processor

Restaurants Yes, Processors No

Ask the Pros: Booting & Burning

March Madness Winners

Optimize ‘On Computers’

Bits from Bill: What is Twitters?

TechBite: Posterous: a Cool Web Repository

Technologizer: My Most Memorable Computer…

Chris Pirillo Video: How to Find Duplicate Files

Tip #1: 30 Tips for Windows 7

Tip #2: How To Tweak Windows Explorer

Tip #3: Descriptions of Crash Errors

Tip #4: 5 Tips For Video Conversion

PC Pitstop Driver Library

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Optimize & OverDrive ‘On Computers’

PC Matic Cybersecurity / April 24, 2009

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Syndicated Tech Columnists Bob & Joy Schwabach recently documented their visit to our humble site. Their ‘On Computers’ column is one of the largest circulation computer columns in the world and appears each week in 8 publications.

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Video – How Do You Find Duplicate Files (or Compare Them)?

Chris Pirillo / April 23, 2009

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How many files do you have on your computer? You probably have too many, and you probably have a lot of duplicate files. Finding those duplicate files can be a challenge without the right software. What if you need to compare files? Again, this can be a challenge. Thankfully, Chris Pirillo has a couple of pieces of software to tell you about.

Video – How Do You Find Duplicate Files (or Compare Them)? Read More »

March Madness Winners

PC Matic Cybersecurity / April 23, 2009

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Congratulations to the lucky winners of the First Annual PC Pitstop March Madness Contest

First Place: Matthew R, Nevada ($500)

Second Place: Larry A, Kansas ($250)

Third Place: Jeff H, Washington ($100)

March Madness Winners Read More »

ASK THE PROS 2009 Booting and Burning

S.Hogan / April 23, 2009

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Another busy week for ASK THE PROS. Some interesting questions that cover a lot of ground so let’s get to it.

Q. K. Woods asks: How do I make a bootable disk with an ISO file?

A. Thanks K. Woods, You are correct, an ISO image or file is used to make a bootable disk. Itâ€™s a CD image file that instructs your system to give a prompt to boot to CD when installing operating systems or anything that needs a bootable disk. They are also commonly used for Games.

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A Beginners Guide To Choosing Processors

S.Hogan / April 17, 2009

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Intel’s latest announcement describing the new Stars rating system has me questioning what’s changed in the way of judging processors by their specifications.
Maybe if I redefine what a processor is, that will help me focus on what I’m looking for when making a purchase.

The job of a processor is to execute program instructions which perform functions. These instructions come in the form of software, so basically a processor interprets software. How well it does this is determined by its architecture or its internal design. Intel and AMD describe this internal design with names like P4, P III, i7, and so on. Within these architecture types are family names like Nehalem, Centrino, and Sempron.

A Beginners Guide To Choosing Processors Read More »

PC Pitstop Newsletter – April 2009

PC Matic Cybersecurity / April 10, 2009

Netbooks – The Way of the 8 Track

Ask the Pros – Backup Drivers

Conficker Removal

PC Pitstop on Facebook

PC Pitstop on Twitter

Bits from Bill: I Don’t Want Your #^$% Toolbar

TechBite: 10 Super-Duper (and Free) Tools

Technologizer: Is the Mac Tax Real?

Chris Pirillo Video: Do You Use a KVM Switch?

Tip #1: Open,view, and print Excel files

Tip #2: Defragment Your Page File

Tip #3: User Manuals

Tip #4: Router with USB, Modem, Dialup

PC Pitstop Driver Library

PC Pitstop Newsletter – April 2009 Read More »

Restaurants YES! Processor NO!

S.Hogan / April 10, 2009

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Intel introduces new rating system. How simple it was when all you needed was a processors family name and clock speed. Getting the fastest was just a matter of buying the most recent architecture with the highest clock speed. The battle between AMD and Intel was only a matter of watching for the next highest clocked processor.

Restaurants YES! Processor NO! Read More »

ASK THE PROS 2009 Drivers and More Drivers

S.Hogan / April 8, 2009

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Every week ASK THE PROS receives questions about drivers. They are not always the same but between looking for specific drivers and wanting to know how to find drivers, the questions mount up. A few weeks back I referenced our Drivers 101 offering. It comes with every DriverAlert subscription. Itâ€™s an excellent guide but thereâ€™s something missing. How do I save the drivers that are installed on my PC now?
Thatâ€™s the question to start this monthâ€™s ASK THE PROS.

ASK THE PROS 2009 Drivers and More Drivers Read More »

Netbooks: Size Matters

S.Hogan / April 8, 2009

With sales approaching only 400,000 units in 2007, netbook sales exploded in 2008 reaching 11. 4 million units. Small, light, and super-portable are the catchwords describing a netbook. Definitions vary but the determining factors are price and size. Generally they have a screen size of 10″ or below, a reduced power/performance processor with 1.0 and 1.6 gig. the most popular of sizes. Price is dictating the use of limited amounts of memory but drive size has been creeping up.

Netbooks: Size Matters Read More »