Month: June 2014

10 Tips to Speed Up your PC

Posted by | Jun 30, 2014 | |

We’ve all been there: our new PCs work just fine until they don’t anymore. The lunge and sprint of the first few weeks (or months, if we’re lucky) turn suddenly to a crawl. Startup time slows down from a few minutes to forever, and when our PCs are finally s the turn of browsers and programs to take all the time in the world simply to load. While no PC is exactly the same as the next, given the range of functions they serve and their various uses for different users, PC speed problems are universal. And almost always, PC slowness could be attributed to only a few reasons. Identifying these reasons and issues is crucial to remedy the problem. Because weve all been there, we have made things easier for all of us by listing down the following 10 tips to help us all improve the performances of our respective PCs. Check for Programs that Slow PC Down Using Task Manager. Some processes and programs just hog PC resources. Get rid of these. This is the first thing to do when your PC starts slowing down. At Task Manager, arrange processes by clicking on the CPU tab to know which ones take up precious PC space. Processes will be sorted based on memory use, with the ones at the top those hogging PC memory the most. It would...

Read More

How to Clean Sirefef Malware Infection From your PC

Posted by | Jun 27, 2014 |

Sirefef refers to a family of stealthy malicious files that come in several known variants. Computers are most commonly infected with Sirefef through social engineering attacks poisoned up ads; and malicious files disguised as program or software updates. The trait that defines and unites all Sirefef variants is the ability to remain hidden in infected computers using rootkit technology while simultaneously downloading more noticeable components. Sirefef is able to do this by effectively disabling antivirus services and processes from running in a computer, even if these antivirus programs were already initially installed. Once infected, a computer becomes part of the massive Sirefef botnet, a network of click scheme that generates revenues and commission from fake click traffic. Online security experts and analysts estimate that Sirefef variants have been installed globally over 9 million times, mostly in the United States, with an estimated worldwide size of around 1 million infected computers. Visible Symptoms of Sirefef Infection Sirefef infections peaked during the middle of 2012. Most antivirus companies have since caught up and have made available updates that could detect and remove malicious Sirefef files. These updates must be immediately installed as soon as they are made available by the antivirus software one is using. Even without the aid of antivirus software, however, Sirefef infection usually displays itself in the following visible symptoms: Abrupt changes in the homepage of the browser...

Read More

Fixing “Your computer is low on memory” Errors

Posted by | Jun 23, 2014 |

Symptoms If your computer doesn’t have enough memory to function correctly, you may regularly encounter error messages indicating this. Aside from error messages, you may also experience generally poor performance and display problems. These issues quite simply indicate that your computer is running low on Random Access Memory and / or virtual memory. It can simply be caused by attempting to run too many programs at once, but can also indicate deeper problems with your machine. Download Recommendation The first thing to try with regard to this error is to attempt to clean the registry of your computer. A good way to do this is to download the Total System Care, which will do an excellent job of cleaning your registry and often sort out the problem in itself.   More Information and Manual Resolution In addition to the above, there are various things you can attempt in order to resolve this issue. The most simple one to start off with is simply run fewer programs at one time. If you’re still experiencing difficulties then the next thing to try is to increase the paging file / virtual memory size. This is done automatically by Windows, but can also be done manually. This carries the risk of making programs run more slowly, but can at least prevent low memory issues. Firstly, open ‘System’ by clicking the Start button then...

Read More

How to Fix Problems Related to the User.dll File in Windows

Posted by | Jun 20, 2014 |

Symptoms While attempting to use a program, you see an error message on the screen which indicates that there is a problem with the User32.dll file. This can occur for a number of reasons, but User32.dll is an important file, as it is fundamentally involved with the functioning of Windows. Thus, if the file is damaged, deleted, or removed, the system will no longer work correctly, and therefore it is extremely important that this problem is resolved as soon as possible. Similarly, if a program is reliant on the file, it will no longer function as it should, if at all. Error messages common to User32.dll errors will offer read similarly to the following: “program Illegal system DLL relocation” Resolution The first thing to try with this issue is simply to run a Windows update. This should be done automatically, but this process can occasionally go awry. Open the Start menu, and then click Run. Type “wupdmgr” into the Run box, and then press enter. Follow the on-screen prompts to run Windows Update. If this doesn’t work, the next thing to try is to attempt to reinstall programs, hardware and drivers that are causing the User32.dll errors. This can often correct the problem. It is extremely difficulty to give step-by-step instructions for this process, as it could be any number of programs / devices, but assistance on installation can...

Read More

How to Fix Problems Related to Toolbar.dll Failing to Load

Posted by | Jun 18, 2014 | , , , |

Symptoms Toolbar.dll is a file used by numerous programs, thus when the Toolbar.dll file fails to load it can be associated with many applications on your computer. It is also worth noting that many spyware programs hide themselves on your computer by using this file name, so it is necessary first to run a virus check when you see this message to ensure that this possibility is eliminated. Aside from possible malware, the most likely program to utilise the Toolbar.dll extension is the AOL Toolbar. Should there not be a malware or virus-related reason for seeing this message then it indicates that something has gone awry with one of the popular Toolbars which can be added on to your browser. Usually this can be attributed to a virus or malware. Resolution The first thing to try with this problem, aside from a virus check, is to reset your browser settings. This can slightly vary depending on your browser, but all mainstream browsers offer a fairly similar process to avoid confusion. To reset settings in Internet Explorer, firstly close all open windows. Next find the Internet Explorer icon, right-click on it, and select ‘Tools’, and then ‘Internet Options’. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab, and then click ‘Reset’. Within the ‘Reset Internet Explorer Settings’ dialog box, again click ‘Reset’. Internet Explorer will then take a few seconds to carry out the requested...

Read More