Help Manual

[jmrpjb]

In an effort to teach myself more about my computer I have come across and downloaded The Tweakguides Tweaking Companion and it seems to be a very good source of information. I guess I'm just asking for confirmation from you guys (the experts) if I'm on the right track. Is it something I can befefit from?

[hotmatrixx]

Never seen it before, sounds good.
TweakGuides

$5 is probably the cheapest on the net, and the guy seems to promise quite a bit for your $.

here is an free online resource I spotted in a quick search:
http://www.pcguide.com/

[caperjack]

nice links for sure ,having a look at pcguide it getting a little long in the tooth[old]2004 and even the update link on the left was still talking P4 cpu /motherboard

[hotmatrixx]

Yeah I noticed that too, after posting. It was too late to come back and edit the post.

[caperjack]

i would also like to add this ,it by my experience to be careful learning about tweaking your computer as some tweaks can cause unwanted problems for you and your OS .

[hotmatrixx]

I didn't think about it, but CJ is right. I have seen some huge screwups, especially with "fix you computer automatically" software like CCleaner, RegCleanNow, GlarySoft, etc. in fact, there is a thread dedicated to ripping them somewhere in the geeks lounge.

A couple of little recommends though:
some of my clients quite like the folowwing bits of software:
iobit (only use the defrag and gamebooster utils, and I haven't looked at any of the other tools for a while, because they were in early dev at the time, and not very good. Maybe worth a revisit now. I use ESET SS for my AV products, yes I am affiliated with ESET as a Qualified Vendor, Reseller, and Certified Admin/Deployment. But only because I believe in the product. Just to clear up any confusion.)
Stardock's Fences

As far as messing with a PC is concerned, if you wanted to be really safe, you could always give it a go in a Virtual Machine like Virtualbox or Windows VPC (by M$) to test it first, before implementing it in the real world.

[jmrpjb]

Thanks to everyone for all their good advice. I will be very cautious when tweaking but I'm finding this guide (Tweakingguide Tweaking Companion) very useful as a "user's manual" as it's filled with everything you always wanted to know about Windows XP.