GIVE WINDOWS THE ONCE-OVER
BENCH-MARK: BEFORE & AFTER
AUDIT YOUR NETWORK
With your hardware checked over, it’s time to move on to Windows itself. There are many built-in tools to help look at your operating system, but they’re not all grouped together in one convenient place. For this job, we recommend tweaking. com’s Windows Repair tool, which makes it easy to run these tests from a single spot. After installing, reboot your PC into Safe mode— the quickest way to do this is to press Win + R, type msconfig, and press Return. Switch to the Boot tab, check ‘Safe boot’, and make sure ‘Network’ is selected before clicking OK and rebooting when prompted.
When you come to tune your PC’s hardware, you’ll want to benchmark it before you make your changes to see what effect your overclocking has on your system. But it’s also worth benchmarking your PC as part of your system checkup. In this instance, benchmarking in isolation tells you very little about the state of your computer, so it pays to benchmark every few months to see if performance dips during that period.
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A key part of your hardware is your network—so when it comes to auditing and maintaining it, you need to cast a wider net than just your main PC. We recommend the open-source NETwork Manager (https://github.com/BornToBeRoot/ NETworkManager), which has all the core tools you need. On first launch, you’ll get an overview listing your PC, router, and public IP addresses, along with any DNS information. Below this is Network Interface providing three tabs. Information is self-explanatory, while Bandwidth allows you to monitor downloads and uploads. Configure provides a section for configuring the various network interfaces on your machine.
After you’ve logged into your user account in Safe mode, launch Windows Repair. We’re not actually interested in its repair tools— although do explore them if you’ve been experiencing certain glitches or problems. Instead, work your way through the four steps, starting with the power reset, which is designed to drain all power (and possible glitches) from your system. Once done, you’ll automatically reboot back into Safe mode, so launch Windows Repair again, and skip to step two.
It’s also good to compare the results of your benchmark with similar setups, so you can see if your PC is performing as it should given its spec. If your PC meets expectations, you can move on to overclocking and repeating the test to see whether you can eke out any noticeable performance gains.
ALL MECHANICAL products require maintenance to keep them running. You get your truck or car serviced at regular intervals to ensure that failing parts are spotted and replaced, while tuning the engine to improve performance and efficiency, so why not your PC too?
Beneath this is Wi-Fi, which is useful, as it lists all visible networks and helps you see which channels are congested via its Channels tab. If you want to move your Wi-Fi network to a less congested channel, however, you’ll need to manually log into your router to do so.
Click ‘Open Pre-Scan’, followed by ‘Start Scan’ to perform three scans. If the Windows Package File scan finds any missing files, then make a note of the files and move on—contact the Doctor if you have trouble tracking them down.
If, on the other hand, your PC falls below expectations, it may indicate an issue that needs addressing. A common cause of sluggish performance is heat—as in too much of it, resulting in thermal throttling as your CPU and other components deliberately slow down to prevent damage. If the temperature readings from HWiNFO appear to support this, open your PC case and make sure it’s dust-free and everything is working. When it comes to benchmark software, there’s a range to choose from. PC UserBenchmark (www.userbenchmark.com/Software) lets you compare your system with other users, although there have been controversies about the weighting of its results.
In this feature, we’ve developed a simple program to help you ensure that your PC’s hardware is running as well as it possibly can. We’ll start by showing you how to audit your system so you can identify everything that’s in it, from the stuff you should already know about (like your graphics card model or CPU), to more obscure components (what USB controllers is your motherboard using, for instance?).