RANT: Websites that don't have a clue and how they get hits...

[DGhost]

This morning I saw (yet another) Windows XP "Tweak" guide - how to make it faster and stable. They claim 99 tips to improve performance.

Several of the items on this list involved overclocking your processor, memory and video card. They give no warning of what can happen to computers if you overclock them improperly.

They recommend turning all the memory latencies down to the lowest setting, despite the fact that most memory modules on the planet will not handle it.

They recommend updating the BIOS - an act that yes, can improve things, but also has the potential to render your system unusable (at least until someone who has a clue can go through and fix it).

They recommend ****ing around with the AGP Bios settings, something that the average user *should*not*touch*. Especially when you get into latencies and cache modes.

They recommend doing crap like setting up raid arrays and several tweaks to Windows that can have particularly... odd... side effects if you don't know what you are doing - things like tweaking the virtual memory manager settings.

Oh. And the *real* icing on the cake is one of their tips is the use of the Alt-Tab key combo.




WTF kind of crap are these websites trying to put out. what kind of out of touch, arrogent and recklessly irresponsible author would seriously suggest the *average computer user* do this sort of stuff.

and what the **** for? so they they can get hits? money off of the ads that show up? i mean... seriously...

[/rant]

[cjolley]

So, do you have a link?
chuck

[DGhost]

Link

Ask and ye shall receive.

[KvHagedorn]

"Beginner's Guides" ROFL

[Wombat]

I recommend renaming the link. Google uses the link's name in part of PageRank. Like stuff about these <A HREF="http://www.sco.com/">litigious bastards</A>.

[Byock]

Ahh, the internet, where one man's Newbie guide, is a another Newbie's road to non functioning PC.


**edit can't type**

[MultimediaMan]

Here's another scary one: http://iamnotageek.com/articles.php?...maller_Windows

[Greebe]

My only problem is I just can't figure out which was written by Jord the all knowing

[Duty]

They do it because they also have a mobile pc repair company...

[leech]

Hey, it's not just the tweaking 'guides' that will mess up your windows install. I tried out one of those "TweakXP" programs (can't remember which one...) but that screwed my system up more than anything I've ever done myself! I (at least most of the time) know what I'm doing even, but when a program like this takes over and screws everything up for you, then it takes some mighty digging to get things back the way they were! Lousy windows, so easy to screw up, and most of the time so difficult to fix again.

Which of course is why Windows users have the mentality that it's easier to just re-install than to try to fix a problem....

Leech

[MultimediaMan]

Truth you speak Leech. But I will take exception to "Windows Users"... It sounds like you are using it as a slur.

What seperates the "men from the boys" in Windows is if and when someone reformats and reinstalls.

I used to pride myself on keeping a "fresh" Windows installation.

Now I don't bother, because if something does screw up (and that is not all that often anymore), I know where to look to get to the root of the problem and get it fixed.

Hint: Event Viewer

Sure I'll reinstall when a service pack comes out, but that's not all that often.

[leech]

Actually I didn't mean it as a slur, as such. More specifically I should have said Windows Tech Support people... Most of the people on Murc know at least what they're doing, (which is why I come here, and either answer questions or ask them), but there are a large amount of people who call up Tech Support and say their windows are broken (pun intended) and Tech Support just tells them to format and re-install.

In some cases, no matter what you do, you have to re-install. Especially if it's something like a bad install to begin with (for example, this guy I know installed a fresh copy of Windows XP and Windows Media Player just wouldn't work. Not even Windows Update would fix it right. Eventually, he just had to re-install again. It's quite odd that WMP wouldn't install the first time, but it would the second time..)

I never really thought about this much, until I read some article on OSnews.com about the different mentality when using Linux vs Windows. Most users in general (due to the way windows is set up) just format and re-install if something is broken.

A good example of having to re-install windows and not having to re-install linux would be if the registry becomes corrupted. For the most part, Windows can become completely unusable, whereas Linux doesn't ever depend on something like a registry (gconfd for Gnome is kind of like that, but you could still boot into the OS and just remove .gconfd in your home directory).

I try to keep it running fast and fresh as well, but really, unless you use regcleaner a lot and/or don't install/uninstall a lot of software, than your registry will get bigger and bigger and over time will just take up more and more ram, because it loads all of that into ram. It's pretty stupid that programs that you no longer have on your system still have entries in the registry.

Leech

[agallag]

Tech support people do that because it's often faster to backup and reinstall, than it is to troubleshoot and fix (if it's something you haven't seen before). It's not because they're stupid (well, sometimes they are, but that's a different argument), it's just that they want to get the job done quick.

[leech]

Guess it all depends on the company providing support... and I don't know how a format and re-install is much faster than fixing the problem, since usualy if someone has had windows installed for a long time, they have it set up just how they'd like it, but with a re-install it can take many hours to days to get it right where someone wants it....

I know when Packard Bell was around, that's exactly what they'd have everyone do, Format and Re-install. In fact, a friend of mine that used to work there, told me about how they were divided into teams, and were asked to come up with a name for their team. Well, he wanted the name Format And Re-install Team (F.A.R.T. for short.)

Leech

[MultimediaMan]

Leech, most OEMs have a restore disk...and this is indeed faster than trying to troubleshoot a problem. The only "detail" overlooked by this are any subsequently installed programs and user Data, but since most people in a business environment use cloned systems, this is rarely an issue. However, in the case of a server or other machine that must be worked on remotely, troubleshooting it may be the only way to go.

Most Businesses I know that have in-house Windows support Have neatly sidestepped the issue by building a "ripper" box: to pull files off of the hard disk in preparation for reimaging the machine. It takes about 30 minutes to do this.

Now, for the power user with a Windows box with a problem there is another solution I HIGHLY recommend: Bart's PE Builder, if this thing can't fix the problem or at least recover the data off of the hard disk, the chances are that nothing will. I love this tool.