New Computer Must-Have

It seems we buy at least one new computer every year. Just when I upgrade our most sluggish machine, and I think we’ll be okay for a while, another computer begins to whine for attention. Of course, I love buying new computers. I used to love it even more when the handful of useless software titles installed on the machine was easy to uninstall. Since the dawn of XP, though, cleaning up and paring down any pre-built computer has been quite a task. Besides the software that I didn’t request there are now “services” that serve no purpose other than to slow down boot up or the machine itself. And those services are listed in such a cryptic way that only the very courageous or utterly foolish would even consider shutting them down without doing extensive research.

That is, unless you’ve happened to find a site that does all the research for you. That’s exactly what TweakHound does. I first used the site when I was trying to streamline my XP laptop. I did all the usual stuff, stopping the startup load of known problem programs like RealPlayer and putting an end to System Restore. And yet there was something just not right. That’s when I discovered the Services that were running and set about to learn which of those I needed and which I didn’t.

I found many sites that offered advice on WindowsXP services but the fact is, no one spelled it out as well as TweakHound.com. The very comprehensive list of default WindowsXP services is probably the best laid out reference I’ve seen. In fact, the entire WindowsXP Tweaking section is just jam-packed with information that every PC user ought to have.

When I first set up my Vista machine, I returned to TweakHound and sure enough, there was a great rundown of Vista Tweaks just waiting for me. Naturally, there isn’t as much info there as in the XP section but I just went back today since my daughter has a new Vista laptop that needs tweaked, and it seems there’s a few more articles than the last time I dropped by. If you want to get right to the meat of the Vista goodies, the Vista Tweak Guide is the place to be.

Oh, but wait! It gets better. TweakHound has a very informative Linux area as well. That’s right, this is a one-stop reference site for PC enthusiasts. I’m still trying to teach myself the ins and outs of Linux so this is the kind of site that appeals to me, like a swiss army knife of operating system references.

Now before you leave TweakHound, be sure to head over to the new blog for the most recent updates. You’ll find some terrific freeware tools, newly discovered OS tweaks and just generally interesting tech stuff that you may not find elsewhere. This is definitely one of the better tech blogs out there.

The guy running this show is Eric Vaughan. He seems to be really good at collecting information and organizing it perfectly so that the rest of us don’t have to run around in circles gathering what we need while sifting through fluff. Eric doesn’t do email tech support but I’ll bet he’d love some interesting discussion at his blog. If you appreciate his work and enjoy his blog, why not take a minute to comment to him and thank him? I know that’s what I plan to do!