About a year and a half ago, ASUS released the Eee PC 701, a small, cheap computer that took off like a rocket, in terms of sales. Since then, many people have written programs specifically for the Eee, and other programs were made popular when netbooks became the fastest growing area in the computer industry. I’ve picked out five; there are many other goodies out there waiting to be discovered. (Note: all programs on this list assume you run Windows.)

1. eeectl (Eee only, Windows)

eeectl is primarily designed to overclock the rather slow processor (a 900MHz Celeron, underclocked to 630MHz on early Eee’s) to stock speed, but has many other features, including backlight control, a temperature monitor and a fan speed controller. It has a highly configurable .ini file, and other speeds beside the defaults (630MHz, 765MHz and 900MHz) are possible (my Eee can go as low as 405MHz before it freezes, and as high as 990MHz without my fear of cooking the thing). It can also control the fan based on the temperature (although the Eee does this already, eeectl lets you choose particular fan speeds for certan temperatures). Highly recommended. You can get it here now. Note: the author says this is for the 701/702, so if you would like to overclock the atom processor on the higher range of the Eee PCs, I recommend this program, made specifically for the Atom processor.

2. AsTray Plus (most netbooks, Windows)

The resoluton software (AsTray) that ASUS ships wth the Eee is rather basic - either 800×480, or 800×600 - and that’s it. Enter AsTray Plus, a third party application that does oh-so-much more. It enables resolutions such as 640×480 (necessary, as some of my designed-for-Windows 98 games won’t run without it) and 1000×600. It, like eeectl, is hghly configurable and has more features than you can throw a stick at. Not only does it allow out-of-the-ordinary resolutions like 880×528 (all of which are at the ratio of 5:3, which is the ratio of 800×480), it also shows the state of your Caps Lock and Num Lock keys (for the Eee has no key lock LEDs) and hides the curser if you so desire. It even runs on other Intel GMA-based PCs, not just netbooks/Eee’s. Resolutions up to a certain size can be downscaled (1000×600 can be scaled, but 1280×768 isn’t). Recommended, especially is 640×480 is a requirement. The official page is here, and you can get the download here.

3. DAEMON Tools Lite (all PCs, Windows)

DAEMON Tools Lite allows you to mount ISO files as if they were CDs. This allows programs that require CDs to be run normally and without external drives on netbooks, which allows greater flexibility on the road (as ISO images can be stored anywhere, including SD/SDHC cards, which sits flush with the exterior of the Eee when in its slot). The free version is the most basic, but still lets you have up to 4 virtual drives (which appear as DVD drives to Windows) and integrates with Windows Explorer (double-clicking an ISO image mounts it). It can create an ISO/MDS image, but it requires the annoying DT Panel enabled to be able to reach it. Still, for the most basic feature (ISO mounting), DAEMON Tools is a winner for netbooks.

4. Pidgin (all PCs, Windows, Linux, UNIX)

All those IM clients you have on your powerful quad-core desktop PC are too much for your tiny netbook, so why not give Pidgin a try? It supports most, if not all, IM protocols, including the Big Four - MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo, Google Talk and AIM. Since you only need one IM program, it uses much less memory than four or five different IM programs  that your desktop runs. Pidgin has a large variety of plugins that improve its functionailty, such as the ability to transparently encrypt all communication with RSA encryption. It tries to support all the features the native programs can, like file transfers and typing notifications. Pidgin is open-source like the popular Firefox browser, and there is even a portable version which you can store on a flash drive and use on any (Wind0ws) PC. Download here; or get the portable version . Note: If you use Windows Live Messenger 2009, and use the multiple places feature, you may be signed out everywhere else when you sign in with Pidgin.

5. CCleaner (all PCs, Windows)

Face it - the Eee’s 4GB SSD just isn’t large enough for a typical Windows install. Besides disabling System Restore, you could also install CCleaner (formorly Crap Cleaner), a light-weight program that scans your hard drive for junk and promptly removes it. Depending on how long you’ve had the computer, the amount of freed space varies, especially if you include the Windows hotfix uninstallers for deletion. The registry can also be given a cleanup, removing leftover, redundant keys from the registry hive, and giving it a thorough scrub. Highly recommended for netbooks or any laptops that have filled up with crap over years of use..

Bonus tip: Disable the paging file

The paging file is bad news for the SSD, as it’s the file most commonly accessed by Windows, and SSDs have a limited number of read/write cycles (which is also why you should never defrag an SSD). It’s best to disable it. Before you do so, I recommended upgrading to 2GB of RAM, if you haven’t already done so. Then press Windows+Pause (or Home key+Pause), go to the Advanced tab and click the first Settings button. Then again go to the Advanced tab, and click Change. Select No paging file, Set and then click OK as many times as necessary, then reboot.

Hello readers, as you may or may not already know, we have 2 authors currently.

We would like to expand this to a team of 3-5 authors to spread the workload and have more professional posts in specific areas

Here are the criteria:

-Must be proffecient in at least one part of computing, i.e (web, coding, linux, Microsoft Office etc)

-Must be able to complete at least one post per week(negotiable)

-Must be under 18

No rewards, money or fame.
Until our blog becomes No 1. of course…

Anyways, if you’re interested, drop a line below and I’ll contact you ASAP

Windows Vista brought many new features relating to time, including support for two different sets of Daylight Savings rules (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_Savings#Microsoft_Windows), and the ability to have extra clocks (useful when you have many contacts in a different timezone). To set up additional clocks, follow these steps:

1. Click on the clock, and then click Change date and time settings.
2. Go to the Additional Clocks tab. In this tab, you can add up to two different clocks in different timezones, and name them.

The Additional Clocks tab

To view the clocks, simply click once on, or hover the mouse over the clock in the system tray. You can view the clocks as analogue plus a calendar (click) or digital (hover; both clocks have the day of the week, if it’s different to your local time).

Two clocks

If your American online buddy is sick of being woken up by you (he leaves his PC on, you know), now you can see what time it is over there without messing up the clock.

Note: The extra clocks do not have any effect on system time. Windows uses local time to write date and time information.

On the forum I visit regularly, (PressF1), we get many users complaining that there firefox is lagging like sh*t and they don’t want to revert it IE.

From my experience, this problem is usually caused by a buggy addon or a corrupt profile. Below are steps on diagnosis and solutions…

1. Reinstall firefox. Uninstall it then install the latest version. Your addons, history and bookmarks should remain intact.
2. Start firefox in safe mode, a diagnostics mode where firefox runs without addons and with default settings. You do this by launching run and typing firefox -safe-mode and hitting enter.
3. If firefox works fine in safe mode, then you will have to find the addon culprit by the process of elimination. Enable on addon at a time until firefox becomes laggy again, then you will know which addon is slowing firefox down.
4. If firefox still lags in safe mode, then the profile that you are running is most probably corrupt.
5. To delete your old profile close ALL firefox windows then launch run>firefox.exe -ProfileManager>delete the “Default” profile.Before you replace your profile, be warned that creating a new profile deletes all bookmarks, settings and passwords. If you wish to restore your original data and settings, read step 7
   

   Deleting profiles

6. In the same dialog, create a new profile:
   

   Creating a Profile

7. [Optional] Transfer original settings and data, read here. In my opinion all you need to do is transfer your bookmarks over. Easiest way to do this is go Bookmarks>Organise Bookmarks>Import and Backup>Export HTML. Save it somewhere, then in your new profile do the same steps but instead select Import HTML.

Those are my steps on diagnosing and fixing a slow firefox.

Think you can add to this? Want more tips similar to this?

Post your thoughts in the comments section below : )

For those of you on a laptop running integrated graphics, you now probably know that  integrated graphics are absolute rubbish for running newer games.

What you may  not know however, is that there is actually a large difference between different chipsets, for example the GMA 950 is one of the better mobile chipsets, having the ability to support the Vista/Windows 7 Aero interface and QuartzGl, in addition it is actually decent in terms of gaming(for laptops). Many of the older chipsets, such as the Intel 945 express, are rubbish for gaming due to the fact that many of these chipsets are underclocked to 133/166 MHz instead of 400 MHz.

GMA Booster(via ghacks), takes advantage of this useful piece of knowledge and boosts the clock speed to up 400mhz, giving you a theoretical 240% increase in games.

Giving you 3 options-boost 120%, 150% or 240%

In real live games you will not neccesarily get a 240% boost in i.e FPS, as it can be affected by shared RAM and the CPU becoming a bottleneck also.

2 annoying things about GMA Booster are that you have to re download the latest weekly build every week, and your set clock speed will be reset when you reboot, due to the technical limitations of the card.

It seems that the developers of GMA Booster are working to produce a permanent solution that will set the clock speed to 400mhz on boot.

Has it given you a boost in your games? Any tips about this software?

Post them in our comments section below!