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Windows Accelerators - Do They Really Work?
danila asks: "Today I came across an intriguing review of Windows tweakers on a Russian technology news site. Among the plethora of traditional registry tweakers, the review mentioned Hare 1.5.1. The developers promised nothing less than up to 300% speed increase, 10% FPS increase in 3D games, automatic RAM preservation and even a wizard that automatically cleans and optimizes Windows. It also had AntiCrash 3.6.1 a program to prevent up to 95.8% of Windows crashes. Understandably, I was both intrigued and suspicious since it sounded too good to be true." Has anyone tried this piece of software with any degree of success? How successful are other "windows accelerators" at improving Windows performance?
"After a little research I found that download.com didn't have it and there are precious few reviews of this revolutionary software online, but that it was endorsed by McAfee and that developers touted conformance with Microsoft's interface guidelines as an important feature.
Still suspicious, I gathered all my courage and installed both programs (silently preparing for something like Bonsi Buddy or XXX Toolbar) on my Win2k Pro machine (P4 1.6/512Mb). Truth be told, after several minutes I was blown away. Obviously I can't tell how well every promised features works, but disk caching (and pre-fetching) that Hare does is outstanding and display performance improved enough to scare me - windows were opening, minimizing and redrawing without the delay I was accustomed to.
The question is -- is it real or was I fooled by some clever placebo tricks? And if it is real, why isn't the Web full of success stories involving Hare and AntiCrash? Why isn't everyone installing them on every Windows machine in the world? And a rhetorical question -- why doesn't Microsoft incorporate some of the features into its operating systems."
Still suspicious, I gathered all my courage and installed both programs (silently preparing for something like Bonsi Buddy or XXX Toolbar) on my Win2k Pro machine (P4 1.6/512Mb). Truth be told, after several minutes I was blown away. Obviously I can't tell how well every promised features works, but disk caching (and pre-fetching) that Hare does is outstanding and display performance improved enough to scare me - windows were opening, minimizing and redrawing without the delay I was accustomed to.
The question is -- is it real or was I fooled by some clever placebo tricks? And if it is real, why isn't the Web full of success stories involving Hare and AntiCrash? Why isn't everyone installing them on every Windows machine in the world? And a rhetorical question -- why doesn't Microsoft incorporate some of the features into its operating systems."
I've had fairly good luck with them, but I've never bought something like that from them. I've gotten good kitchen/housekeeping tools there, and been quite happy with them. You may have just gotten a bad unit. Did you try taking it back for a refund/exchange?
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Try building Gnome or KDE for a more modern processor to take advantage of the optimizations those processors have. I built KDE and its not noticeably slower then Fluxbox or WindowMaker.
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Here, try this one (I just stole it from a guy at the next cube)
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There are 2 types of these outfits - 'As seen on tv' and 'Like seen on tv'. The 'As seen...' should be an item that has actually been advertised on tv, the 'Like seen...' is going to be an imatation of an 'As seen...' product.
Regarding the alkaline battery charger, someone correct me, but doesn't an alkaline battery use acid to corrode a piece of metal inside the battery to produce the chemical reaction needed to produce electricity? How can you expect to recharge something that doesn't hold a charge, but rather creates one? That'd be like expecting to be able to fill your gas tank by plugging it in to the wall. Not that you couldn't try, mind you. Knock yourself out.
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try getting that in a store.
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Regarding the alkaline battery charger, someone correct me, but doesn't an alkaline battery use acid to corrode a piece of metal inside the battery to produce the chemical reaction needed to produce electricity?
No, you're thinking of an acid battery (such as the ones commonly found in automobiles). A lead-acid battery is actually rechargeable, so long as the lead doesn't get completely dissolved by the sulphuric acid.
On the other hand, an alkaline battery such as the AAA batteries commonly used in pagers, does not contain any acid. It's got zinc electrodes and some sort of magnesium powder in there. Go ahead and break one open -- you'll see the black powdery stuff, the long silvery core, and the cardboard that insulates the two poles from each other.
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