The performances of your computer are limited to it’s hardware. Hardware is the componants of the computer such as the Hard drive, ventilator, graphic card, memory, cd/dvd player, monitor etc. These componants can only function at a certain speed, they are physical limited. However some of them have limiters set by the manufacturer, in order to not over head or malfunction. (The same applies to cars, some have speed limiters, the engine is physically capable of going faster but it is legally considered dangerous so limiters get fitted) You can download softwares which enable you to control the limits set. Down clocking is when you lower the limite, therefore the component will work slower, this works by changing the amout of electricity and energy the hardware gets. And over clocking is the opposite, you higher the limite, which will boost your computers performances. This is often done by gamers. Video games have great graphic designs, but to be in order to view these graphics at their full extent you need a good graphic card. And what gamers do is they manualy over clock the graphic card to make it work faster, therefore having a better game. However this can result in the hardware to malfunction, break or burn depending on how long and how much you over clock. The opposite scenario is also possible, some games have such high graphic levers that your graphic card overheats and then your computer doesnt work correctly. You can therefore lower the limit, which will prevent the component to over heat.

If you do manualy change such settings on your hardware you must be aware that you might break them. You must inform yourself and be aware of the risks. However they aren’t any risks of downclocking, because it basically just makes everything slightly slower, so nothing can over heat. People who overclock their components focus mainly processors, video cards, motherboard chipset and RAM, they do so because these are the components which define the “speed” of your computer.

You often hear this word but not everyone knows what it really means. Basically a server is a computer, which is turned on all the time. Obviously it is much more powerfull than a normal computer and has bigger storage available.

Servers are essential for a network either for small groups such as organisations or for large public groups such as the internet. Data is stored on servers, such as websites, for example when you do a google search your demande will be sent to the corresponding server of google, it will retrieve the information and then send it back to you. Big websites such as google, amazon, microsoft etc have many servers, in order to respond quickly, other wise they would be overflooded with millions of requests and your end the website will be really slow.

Hackers also use servers to send out spam. When they find a server without an antivirus software of in which they can hack into, they use it to send thousands of emails per second. All servers are monitored by a company, when the company detects that a server is sending out too much data per second, it isolates it and cuts of it’s acces to the internet. It also informs everyone that that server must be ignored and it has become a spam server.

All the servers are connected to each other, this is how internet works. They can be used for different reasons, such as to store data, this why companys have servers, so they have one centrale database where all the employees can store their work. The risk is that if the server crashes all the information could be lost, therefore server backups must be done regularly. Most often a backup is done at the end of every day, that way if data is lost, it is only a days work.

The latest operating system of Microsoft isWindows 7. It will be replacing the older version Windows Visa which was often criticised for it’s many faults and bugs. Here are a few changes and differences in windows 7

The Multi-touch option in Win 7

Recently the touch technology has become the latest trend after Apple launched it’s  revolutionary multi-touch iPhone and since most mobile devices are sold with such technology. Therefore Windows 7 has adapted and followed the trend. All the supported hardward has multi-touch.

The looks

The new Aero Peek option enables the Win 7 users to modify the opened windows and set them as transparent. This is can be very usefull for example if you wish to see the weather or time on the Windows 7 sidebar Gadget

Windows 7 desktop has a different look. The taskbar has been modified. You can now set at your liking the order of the opened Window buttons. It has Jump Lists feature with which you can open commonly used programs quickly. And you can also view a preview of the entire screen before switching to an other window. The Quick Launch bar and taskbar are also now fusionned together in Windows 7. Win 7 is offerd with an enhanced Media Center option. It will come with Internet Televison which will stream MSN channels and will have a handy desktop sidebar gadget for the same too.

NetBook Edition

Netbooks are the latest small light weight portable laptops used for going on the internet, reading email etc. It is previewed that by the end of the year every major manufactur will produce such laptops such as HP, Dell, Sony etc. Windows 7, apart from Ultimate Edition and Business edition will also have Netbook compatible Edition. But it will be a lighter and stripped down version of windows.

New Performance and User Friendliness

Windows 7 is much faster and reduce the time to install any program. Also, now Windows will be less annoying and will not prompt you all the time UAC. It is also interesting for program developers, it will be much easier and faster to create and Windows application with Win7.

Viruses nowerdays are becoming very frequent and very intellegent. The people who create them have become very engenious and have found smart ways to get us to download viruses without our knowledge. They have found small faults in the system or they trick us. One thing you must know about viruses is that you do not simply “catch” them by going on the internet.

Viruses can not AUTO install themselves, it is always the person using the computer who accepts them. But as they are always hidden you are not aware of it. If you know how these things work it is easy to spot them and avoid them. To get a virus you always have a download request, for example you are looking for a video on the internet, you find a great looking website and click on the play button of the video. Then the video will load but not start and you will get a message telling you that you do not have the current plugin or version etc. Then a download request will open and because it looks real you might download it, and then once you open the program it will launch a virus and infect your system. Therefore you shouldnt download any “plugins” unless they are Adobe flash.

A good way to prevent these viruses is to have a good antivirus software. You can buy very good ones or you can find free softwares on the internet, but they will only cover the basics and might not be as affective. One thing that you must know is that you should not have two antiviruses programs installed on the same computer, cause they will detect each other as a virus and try to delete each other. These two free softwares are good : avast and microsoft security essentials. They also protect against spybots and malwares. Which are other forms of viruses.