Note that this is some things I have picked up over a time and thought I would share them with you all.
First off this artical here says alot for everyone,please read and learn
If you think your PC will stop crashing after you apply all the wisdom contained in this article, hit the Back button now. Simply put, there's no way to crash-proof a Windows PC.
You see, when Windows first came out, it was just another program that sat on top of DOS-- except it went on to take over the entire machine. When the operating system got much bigger with the advent of Win95, DOS continued to reside beneath it. Problem is, a 32-bit version of Windows, like Win95, sitting on top of MS-DOS is like John Candy sitting on a plastic tricycle. In both cases, crashes are inevitable.
Why PCs Crash
More often than not, today's software is extremely bloated. Not to keep bagging on Microsoft, but with each new version of Windows, millions of lines of code get added. The more lines of code, the more likelihood of bugs.
You can either say that software companies add more features to software in order to sell new versions of it, or that we users keep demanding more. Either way, many of us try to run that bloated software on the ultra-cheap PCs available today. Well, those PCs are cheap because the hardware inside them isn't top-quality, further increasing the chance of crashes.
Another reason why PCs crash is DLL incompatibility. This problem is so prevalent that the term "DLL Hell" has become commonplace. DLLs (dynamic link libraries) are small programs that larger programs rely on in order to accomplish tasks. Often, a DLL is shared among many applications. Microsoft Word and Excel, for example, would use the same DLL to send documents to the printer. When you install new software, it can potentially overwrite a necessary DLL with an older version bearing the same name. When an application that's been working fine for years looks for the DLL that was overwritten and can't find it, that application is likely to crash.
So do you understand what we're up against? Given all this, the trick isn't to crash-proof our PCs, but rather to make them crash less.
Don't Crash: Stay Clean and Sober
The best way to make a Windows PC crash infrequently is to keep it lean. When you have some free time, perform a clean install of Windows. Then, only install the applications that you really use. Eliminating that which is unnecessary-- such as the game you no longer play or the freeware that wasn't as cool as you thought it'd be-- will cut down on software conflicts and system bloat. As an added benefit, your PC will run faster if the hard drive isn't full.
Once you find a stable configuration-- a selection of software and hardware that won't constantly crash your system-- resist the temptation to mess around with anything. Every time you add new software to your computer, the likelihood of conflict-causing crashes increases. When you do add new software, back up your system first so that you can revert back to the old, stable configuration if trouble brews.
Above all, keep away from beta software. It's fun to be one of the first people to tool around with a new product, but unfinished, buggy applications can cause your system to crash more.
When using your computer, run as few programs as possible. My computer crashes when I start feeling drunk with power and run a silly number of cool applications simultaneously. On all but the most powerful computers, even if you just have Word, Netscape, and your email client open at one time, you're at risk for a crash.
If you like or need to have several applications open at once, add more RAM. One of the reasons computers crash when you have a bunch of applications open at once is that they run out of memory. For Windows computers, the RAM sweet spot is between 32- and 64MB.
Try Something New
Feed the beast
Some people swear that a legit way to avoid crashes is to use Microsoft products exclusively. If you're running Windows 98, Word, Internet Explorer, and Outlook 98 simultaneously, you're less likely to experience a crash than if you were running analogous applications from many different software companies.
I should point out, however, that this probably has nothing to do with some shadowy Microsoft conspiracy to increase market share. It's more like using shampoo and conditioner from the same manufacturers-- the formulas work well together because the same chemists produced them.
If you never remember to scan for viruses, update virus protection, run Disk Defragmenter, or run any other system tool, then look to the Task Scheduler for help.
By using Task Scheduler, you can run programs and tasks at a time that is most convenient for you. Task Scheduler automatically starts when Windows boots up, and it runs as a background application.
Here's what you can do with Task Scheduler:
Schedule a task to run daily, weekly, monthly, or at certain times (like during system startup).Change the schedule for a task.Stop a scheduled task.
To take full advantage of this service, make sure that the system date and time for your computer are accurate before you add a task.
Schedule your own tasks:
Go to your desktop and double-click My Computer.Now, double-click the Scheduled Tasks folder.When the folder opens, double-click on Add Scheduled Task.This will launch a wizard that will walk you through the process.
The wizard will load a list of everything that's installed on your machine. Try scheduling the Disk Defragmenter to run the first Monday of every month at 12 p.m.
Switch operating systems or platforms.
If crashes are seriously bumming you out, you might consider switching to an alternative operating system like Linux or BeOS. Both are nearly crash-proof, but are also difficult to use and offer far fewer software options than Windows or Macintosh computers do.
If you are considering a move to one of these alternative operating systems, it would behoove you to set up a multi-boot system-- one that can non-simultaneously run more than one OS-- before switching completely. This way, you can choose whether you want to practice using your new OS or run Windows whenever you boot your computer. To set up a multi-boot system, buy a hard drive partitioning utility such as PowerQuest's Partition Magic or V-Communications Partition Commander.
Many Mac users swear that their computers crash less than PCs, but many PC users claim just the opposite. Anyway, straying from the PC platform might be more of a hassle and a money pit than a crash solution. After all, going the Mac route means that all the hardware and software you've accumulated during your tenure as a PC user may as well be donated to the church rummage sale. And rebuilding your computing arsenal won't only be costly, but also fairly unexciting since the Macintosh aisle at electronics stores is only somewhat more extensive than the Iraqi cuisine section at a North Dakota supermarket.
If you hate to leave the Windows world but can't stomach another crash, try Windows NT Workstation (soon to be called Windows 2000). NT crashes far less than Windows 95 or 98 because it was built from the ground up without being bolted on top of DOS. It's also a preemptive, multitasking OS, meaning the operating system itself controls the allocation of the CPU's power, not your applications. This prevents a single application such as Microsoft Word from hanging the entire operating system. Furthermore, NT is fault tolerant, meaning that each 32-bit application gets its own Virtual Memory space so that one app can't invade the space of another.
Does Crash Protection Software Work?
Many software companies sell products that sound as though they'd make your PC crash-free. Norton CrashGuard (\\$30) is probably the best-known example. The thing is, none of these programs really make your PC crash less. In fact, some people claim that they actually cause crashes.
What they will do is monitor your system and warn of an impending crash and in many cases automatically save your data when a crash occurs. Norton CrashGuard can also give you a full report of just what went wrong when your computer goes south. You can then act on this information-- fixing consistently problematic situations-- to decrease your crash rate. Moreover, CrashGuard can help you recover from a crash quickly. For example, if your Web browser crashes, the software can take you directly back to the Web page you were looking at when the crash occurred.
All in all, though, CrashGuard and its like really won't prevent crashes, and therefore I don't recommend it. If the features highlighted above appeal to you, buy CrashGuard as part of the Norton SystemWorks suite (\\$60). For not much more money, you'll receive a boatload of excellent Norton products such as Utilities, CleanSweep, Anti-Virus and Web Services alongside CrashGuard.
