Every now and then I come across great PC tips and share them withyou. A few months back I told you how to put Linux on a USB drive (and why you'd want to), and how to bypass Windows Updates. TodayI've found some interesting research on using Sleep Mode (vs.leaving a PC running), plus a great tip on how to quickly removeUSB devices without hassling with the "Safely Remove Hardware"routine. Leave Your PC Running? Put It to Sleep and Save Cash When it's time to turn in for the night, what do you do with yourPC? Turn it off? Leave it running? Put it in standby (aka sleep)mode? There are different schools of thought on which is best. Forexample, some feel that the startup and shutdown processes createextra wear and tear, and therefore opt to leave their machinesrunning 24/7. According to Iolo Labs, which recently completed some studies onthe subject, sleep mode wins the day (make that night). Theirfindings: 1. When you put your PC to sleep at night instead of leaving itrunning, you save $2 per month. 2. When you put your PC to sleep at night instead of turning itoff, you save at least 25 minutes per month (in startup andshutdown time, I'm guessing), while spending only an extra fivecents monthly. I'm waiting to hear back from an Iolo rep on whether hibernate modewas considered in this study, as that would save you somestartup/shutdown time and save you money as well. (When your computer is in standby, it continues to draw a bit ofpower. In hibernate, however, it's effectively off.) In any case, I think there's something to be said for pocketing anextra $24 annually just by putting your PC to sleep at night. Andas someone who has long been annoyed by annoyingly long boot times,there's much to be said for resuming your work session almostimmediately, right where you left off. Safely Remove USB Drives Just by Unplugging Them Most Windows users have become conditioned over time to neverunplug a USB flash drive or hard drive without first clickingSafely Remove Hardware in the System Tray. Why is that necessary? In theory, it's to ensure that Windows isn'tbusy reading from or writing to the drive when you remove it,something that could result in corrupted data or even a damageddrive. As it turns out, however, you can safely sidestep Safely RemoveHardware with little to no loss of performance. In fact, thisoption may already be enabled on your system, and you just didn'tknow it. Yep, you may have been wasting extra clicks all this time. Do this: Plug your USB drive into your PC, then open Device Manager. (Note:These steps are based on Windows 7. Things might look different inprevious versions of Windows.) Expand Disk Drives, then find the entry for your removable drive.On my system, for example, it's called "USB2.0 Flash Disk USBDevice." Right-click that entry, then click Properties. Click the Policies tab; you should see something like the screenbelow. If the first option, Quick removal, is already selected, you're good to go. As noted in itsdescription, "you can disconnect the device safely without usingthe Safely Remove Hardware notification icon." If Better performance is selected, switch to Quick removal and click OK. So, what are giving up by disabling write caching? According to thetest results posted at 7tutorials , almost nothing. The performance impact was negligible. Yourmileage may vary, of course, but I think it's worth a fewmilliseconds to avoid the hassles of having to mess with SafelyRemove Hardware all the time. If you've got a hassle that needs solving, send it my way. I can'tpromise a response, but I'll definitely read every e-mail Iget--and do my best to address at least some of them in the PCWorld Hassle-Free PC blog. My 411: . You can also si gn up to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-mailed to you each week . We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Ear Flesh Tunnels , Dermal Anchor Jewelry Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Eyebrow Piercing Jewelry.
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