The world renowned PC Pitstop OverDrive Scan now scans for potentially dangerous Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) and Toolbar Add-Ons.

THE SHAPE OF COMPUTING

Strewn across the floor and stacked in my closet are 100’s of lifeless parts. Processors, cords, connectors and fans, dead and lifeless now, they were once proud warriors of the desktop era. Striving to be faster in a technical world consumed by speed, I devoured processors and motherboards like shrimp on a buffet.

• Your PC is Not Old
• Death to the Desktop
• OverDrive - Overhauled
• Top 10 Tips of 2008 (so far)
• Bits from Bill: Spyware From Where?
• Malware Survey
• Pitstop Research: XP SP3 Adoption
• Tip #1: Ebay Mispells
• Tip #2: Rename Multiple Files at Once

An analysis of click thru rates for our newsletters in 2008 reveals the 10 most popular Tips - year to date.

Since its release in early May 2008, there has been plenty of press concerning the issues with Microsoft's XP Service Pack 3. Common sense would tell us that such negative press would drastically slow the rate that folks would update to the release. PC Pitstop analyzed the percentage of XP users that have updated their systems to SP3 during the first three months since its release and compared them to the adoption rates of SP2 during its roll out.

THE SHAPE OF COMPUTING

Strewn across the floor and stacked in my closet are 100’s of lifeless parts. Processors, cords, connectors and fans, dead and lifeless now, they were once proud warriors of the desktop era. Striving to be faster in a technical world consumed by speed, I greeted new processors and motherboards like a lion greets wildebeasts. Today those dark ages are gone, replaced by the Renaissance of Mobility, or as the techies would say, “let me grab my portable”.

I just finished doing the math. I began computing in 1983 and during that time, I have owned exactly 10 different computers. That means, the average life of one of my PC's is 2.5 years. That certainly is an eye opener. 2.5 years is not that long a time in PC years. When I purchased each one, my anticipation was a lot more than a couple of years, so why is that?

*The Hard Drive of the Future
*Software is Wasting Your Cores
*OverDrive - Once Is Never Enough
*A Faster PC - In 'Any' Language
*Bits from Bill: Top Sources of Free Software
*Malware Survey
*Pitstop Research: CPU Olympics
*Tip #1: XP Tweak Myths
*Tip #2: Remove Old Java Installs
*Tip #3: Print Folder File List

Back in February, Steve Hogan made the case for getting a multi-core system. Rob Cheng's experience shows that dual-core systems aren't always faster though. It's possible for a multi-core system to outperform a single-core system, but you're not likely to see a desktop operating system or many applications that can take advantage of it. There are good reasons for that problem, and they aren't going away any time soon.

The next big improvement for your computer is here. The always spinning, ever failing hard drive is becoming an artsy door stop, replaced by Solid State Drives (SSD). They have a lot going for them but there are also some misconceptions about what they provide.