When it comes to getting the best performance out of your computer, nothing can beat a Solid State Drive (SSD). Right out-of-the-box, they are significantly faster reading / writing data than a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). But there are a few things that you have to do differently with an SSD. Here's how to safely optimize your solid state drive.

There are plenty of articles out there that will give you a ton of different tweaks you can use to speed up the SSD access time, from turning off disk indexing to disabling Prefetch and Superfetch. Some may work for you; some may not. Generally speaking, if you're running Windows 7 or higher, the operating system should recognize the SSD and modify its behavior accordingly. The following tweaks are entirely safe and will not harm your system in any way.

General SSD maintenance

SSDs operate differently from HDDs, and there are a couple of things you should never do to an SSD. Since SSDs have limited read/write cycles, any program that intensively accesses the SSD could shorten the drive's life span. Running a disk defragment program on an SSD is not recommended. And as far as Check Disk (CHKDSK) is concerned, you'll need to contact the manufacturer of your SSD to find out if they recommend it or not.

Microsoft started building in support for SSDs in Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 and has expanded on it in Windows 8 / 8.1 & Windows Server 2012. Since the low-level operation of SSDs is different from HDDs, the Trim command was introduced to handle delete/format requests. To verify that Trim is on, you'll need to open an Administrative Command Prompt.

How to open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges in Windows 7

How to open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges in Windows 8

How to open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges in Windows 10

You can verify that Trim is enabled by typing the following into an Administrative Command Prompt:

If the command returns a 0, then Trim is enabled. If it returns a 1, then it is not. To enable Trim, type the following into the Admin Command Prompt:

SSD free space maintenance

SSDs do have one downside; their capacity can be smaller than HDDs. The capacity of SSDs is getting closer to HDDs every day, but the price for a 1 to 2TB SSD can be kind of expensive. If you have a smaller capacity SSD, maintaining an adequate amount of free space is necessary.

Now there are two scenarios for setting up computers with SSDs: Single-drive (SSD only) and Multiple drives (SSD + HDD). Laptops are usually single-drive, and desktops are almost always multiple-drive. Here are a few ways to maintain free space.

Single-drive (SSD only)

The options here are limited. You could store your files like documents, photos, and music to an external drive or the cloud to free up space. Here are a few more ideas.

Turn off Hibernation.
With the speed of an SSD, boot times will be relatively faster than with an HDD. You'll find that you can boot your computer just as fast as if you brought it out of hibernation. And since hibernation writes the system memory to disk, you'll free up the same amount of disk space equal to the total system memory. And if you have a lot of memory, this can free up a big chunk of space on your SSD.

Disable Windows hibernation and free up disk space

Turn off the virtual memory/pagefile.
Use this with caution! Technically, virtual memory is used when all of the system memory is full. If you have a large amount of system memory (16GB or more) and you don't run memory hog software like Photoshop, you should be alright disabling it. And you'll free up a few GB's of drive space in the process.

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows 7

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows 8

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows 10

Clean up the drive regularly.
Temporary files and browser caches are a few items you'll need to keep an eye on. Using a program like Piriform's CCleaner or Disk Cleanup that comes with Windows will take care of these files. Disk Cleanup can also be run as a scheduled task.

Free up more disk space with Windows 7 Disk Cleanup

Clean up your hard drive in Windows 8 with Disk Cleanup

Clean up Windows 10 with Disk Cleanup

Clean up and optimize your computer for free with CCleaner

Multiple-drive (SSD + HDD)

This is the optimal setup. Everything under a single-drive scenario applies here. Windows and program files need to be on the SSD. Almost anything else that Windows doesn't require for regular operation can go over to the HDD.

Move the virtual memory/pagefile.
Instead of turning it off, move it to the HDD (see link above).

Move personal files to HDD.
Your documents, photos, and music can take up a large amount of space on your drive. Get them off of the SSD and over to the HDD.

Modifying the default locations of user files and library properties in Windows 7

Modifying the default locations of user files and library properties in Windows 8

Modifying the default locations of user files and library properties in Windows 10

There are plenty of other tweaks you can do, like moving the location of your browser cache and temp folders to the HDD. You can find all of that information and more with a quick search on Google.

Note: This article was based on Paint.NET version 4. Since this article was written, Paint.NET version 5 has been released. Click here to read the newer Paint.NET 5 article.

One of the things I like to do besides repairing computers is creating graphics. Over the years, I have used many different image editing programs, including Photoshop and CorelDraw. But for free graphics programs, you just cannot beat Paint.NET.

Lately, I have been back through some of my older articles and updating the content. Even though I wrote this article a few years ago, Paint.NET is still one of my favorite graphics programs. And it just keeps getting better all of the time.

The user interface inside of Paint.NET 4

Paint.NET was initially created to replace the Paint program included in Windows but has evolved in to so much more since then. It includes such features as layers, effects, transparency, blending, and best of all, plugins.

With hundreds of plugins available, you can expand on the out-of-the-box graphic capabilities of Paint.NET. Since I have a digital camera that will take photos in RAW format, I found a plugin that opens that type of file. I also use Photoshop and have found a plugin to open those files too.

Paint.NET uses an asynchronous, fully multithreaded rendering engine and supports hardware acceleration via the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Selections are anti-aliased, and selected outlines rendered with 'dancing ants' animation, significantly improving the contrast between the sample and image. And the user interface is clean and straightforward to use.

The Settings dialog box inside of Paint.NET 4

There are now two (2) versions of the Paint.NET program. The original Windows desktop version and the UWP (Universal Windows Platform). The Windows desktop version is available for download for free from the dotPDN website. The UWP version is available for purchase from the Microsoft Store.

Paint.NET system requirements

• Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7 SP1 with platform update
• .NET Framework 4.7.2
• 1 GHz processor (dual-core recommended)
• 1 GB of RAM

For more information on Paint.NET, follow the links below:

Get Paint 4
What's new in Paint.NET

Most computers (laptop & desktop) nowadays come with a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) as standard equipment with a Solid State Drive (SSD) as an option. Each drive type has its pros and cons: HDD's are cheaper and have more storage, but SSD's are extremely fast (especially when connected to an M.2 slot). So if your existing computer has an HDD, odds are you could replace it with an SSD. Here's how to upgrade your computer hard disk drive to solid-state drive.

I wrote an article not long ago on how to upgrade the hard drive in your computer and refer back to it often. It describes how to clone a smaller drive to a larger one of the same type. Since SSD's typically have less storage than HDD's, this time I'll have to shrink the existing HDD (80 GB) partition(s) down below the capacity of the target SSD (64 GB) before I can clone it.

As in the article mentioned above, the first thing to do is a Checkdisk of the existing HDD. Doing this will ensure there are no errors that may prohibit the cloning of the drive.

Running Checkdisk in Windows Vista / Windows 7

Running Checkdisk in Windows 8

Running Checkdisk in Windows 10

Now we have to start cleaning up the drive. Windows has a built-in tool called Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) that works pretty well at getting out the clutter. Try using it from an admin command prompt; that way, you'll get more options.

Disk Cleanup Windows 7 / Vista

Disk Cleanup Windows 8

Disk Cleanup Windows 10

Since we are trying to get the maximum amount of free space we can, we will have to delete some files, including documents, photos, videos, etc. Doing a backup right now will ensure we have a copy of all of the files if we need to recover some later.

Windows Vista / Windows 7 Backup

Windows 8 Backup

Windows 10 Backup

The next thing I have to do is find out what is taking up space on the existing HDD. For this, I'll use a copy of Space Sniffer. After a quick view, I see I can free up several gigabytes of space by permanently removing the hibernation file and temporarily deleting the swap file. Windows will warn you about having no swap file, but we will be recreating the swap file once the drive cloning is complete.

Disable Windows hibernation

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows Vista

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows 7

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows 8

Managing Virtual Memory / Pagefile in Windows 10

The next thing we need to do to the drive is to defragment it. I'll use Defraggler from Piriform for this task. Once the drive is defragged, it's time to shrink it. To do this, open Computer Management, expand the Storage section in the left column, and select Disk Management. In the right column, right-click on the partition marked as Boot (usually C:) and select Shrink. Remember to take the size down at least 10-15% below the capacity of the new SSD.

Shrinking a partition down in Windows 7

Once the partition has been resized, it's time to clone the drive. The following article has details on how to clone your hard drive, including links to the cloning software.

How to upgrade the hard drive in your computer

Note: An issue not addressed in the article above is the form factor; the existing SATA HDD is 3.5" form factor, and SATA SSD's are 2.5" form factor.

This can easily be resolved by using a pair of 2.5" to 3.5" adapter brackets.

Once the drive cloning is complete, and the system is running again, we need to expand the boot partition to use any free space available. Open Computer Management, expand the Storage section in the left column, and select Disk Management. In the right column, right-click on the partition mark as Boot (usually C:) and select Expand. Once the boot partition has been resized, you can now enable the Windows swap file.

For more information on upgrading computer drives. click on the following links.

How to clone the drive in your Windows computer

How to upgrade the hard drive in your computer

I've been doing virus/malware removal for a while now and have seen many different types of infections. The latest trend is to target your Internet browser. Whether it is Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge, it can get compromised. One of the best programs I've found to clean up Internet browsers is AdwCleaner by Malwarebytes.

The main screen inside of AdwCleaner

Browser exploits have been around for a while now. Who hasn't had their home page changed or have a mysterious toolbar appear when they opened up their browser? AdwCleaner is the perfect tool for getting all of that junk out of your browser(s).

The settings screen inside of AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner works great for removing adware, PUP's (Potentially Undesirable Program), unwanted toolbars, and home page hijacking. It can also clean up all Internet settings and reset your network adapter(s) back to their default state. And when AdwCleaner is finished cleaning your computer, it will restart it.

AdwCleaner is a stand-alone program (requires no installation) except for the quarantine folder and a few registry entries it creates. Just download it to your computer, and you are ready to go. And you can uninstall it right from the main user interface. Best of all, it's free.

For more information on AdwCleaner, follow the link below.

Malwarebytes AdwCleaner

E-mail has changed the way we communicate over the last couple of decades. The days of pen and paper letter writing are gone. But e-mail does have a negative side: unwanted e-mail, known as Spam. Billions of pieces of spam are sent every day. Do you know how to spot a piece of spam?

When it comes to spam, I like to break them down into three (3) groups:

• Junk: Just straightforward advertising
• Phishing: Trying to get personal information, like login credentials
• Malicious: Meant to deliver some kind of payload, usually file-encrypting malware

Of all three types of spam e-mail, malicious is the most dangerous, but phishing is the most popular. With the progress in security over the years, the malicious spam with attachments has decreased. Scammers now want to get a quick payday, and bank credentials and gift cards are just a couple of ways they try to get your money. But if you take the time to look at a questionable e-mail, you will be able to determine whether it is or is not spam. Let's look at the different areas of an e-mail.

The From: field

This field can be easily faked, and you can check it quickly by hovering your cursor over the From field.

Do you know the sender? Do you now or in the past done business with that company? If you answered no to both questions, it is probably spam. Also, look for e-mail addresses from domains that provide free e-mail addresses (gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.) or end with a two-letter extension (@com.uk, @com.ru, etc.). Two-letter extensions are for domains outside America.

The To: field

This field should contain just your e-mail address. If multiple e-mail addresses are listed, do you recognize any other e-mail addresses? If you don't, it could be spam. And if this field is blank, the odds are its spam.

The Subject: field

When it comes to the Subject field, if it doesn't sound right, it's not. Spam from other countries is quite often full of grammatical errors. Always remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The odds are that the anti-virus/service contract renewal invoice is bogus and that e-fax, scan from a Xerox WorkCentre (notice the spelling), or notice to appear in court that is attached is just a virus.

The e-mail body:

The message in the body of the e-mail usually tries to get you scared or angry, and they want to use your emotions against you. But the first thing to remember is do not call any phone number or click on any links in a panic. That is just what they want you to do. Take your time and read the e-mail carefully. I like looking for grammatical errors.

For those spam e-mails that tell you that your bank account has been charged for something you did not order, do not call any phone number that is listed in the message. As I wrote in the How to handle a tech scam article, the scammer's primary goal is to get your money.

And if the e-mail states that you need to verify your login credentials, do not click on the link they put in the e-mail. They are just phishing for your personal information. You can usually check where the link points to by hovering your cursor over the link.

Chrome displays the URLs at the bottom of the browser

Outlook displays URLs next to the link

If you want to be reassured that a particular e-mail is spam, go ahead and use your usual way of accessing that resource (bank website, credit card website, etc.). Remember that credit and debit cards usually have a toll-free phone number on the back.

Attachments:

Never open attachments from people you do not personally know. Never. If you receive a questionable e-mail from someone you know but were not expecting, contact them directly and verify they sent you the e-mail with the attachment.

Scammers are notorious for adding fake file extensions to attachments to get you to open them. They know that most e-mail programs hide the extensions of attachments. So what they do is they name a malicious file something like OpenMe.pdf.exe, and the e-mail program will only display OpenMe.pdf.