HOW TO FIX PARALLELS DESKTOP 8 ERROR ON MAC OS X MAVERICKS.

Now with the latest Mac desktop operating system, Mac OS X Mavericks is available for free download from Mac App Store. All Mac users can now experience the latest features and enjoy the most advanced technologies ever built today into every Mac computer. Mac OS X 10.9 also comes with powerful apps for browsing the web, sending messages, setting reminders, and so much more. All the apps work great with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch too. Thanks to Apple, all Mac users can now enjoy the world's most advanced desktop operating system for free. 

However with Mac OS X Mavericks as host system, Parallels Desktop 8 will not work if Mac users does not install the latest update on their virtual machine after installing the latest Mac OS X operating system on their computer. In this article I am going to show you the easy way on how to get started using Parallels Desktop 8 on Mavericks for free.

If you are trying to launch Parallels Desktop 8 on your Mac after installing Mac OS X 10.9 and encountered the following error:-

1. No Virtual Machine can be started,

2. Your Virtual Machine may run slow because virtualisation support is disabled on your Mac,

3. Parallels Desktop virtual machine not activated, or

4. The Virtual Machine  performance may be degraded because the hardware virtualisation support is  disabled on the host computer - Drivers are not installed.

Then try to do the latest updates on your Parallels Desktop 8 and if you still encounter a problem launching your virtual machine after performing the latest update,  then go to http://kb.parallels.com/en/5802 and download the latest updates version 8.0.18494 onto your Mac.

Once you have finished downloading the updated file, just find and locate the file from your downloads folder and double click on the file to start updating your Parallels Desktop 8 to the latest version. On completion remember to restart your Mac before you try launching your virtual machine. It is important that you follow this procedure carefully otherwise it will not work.

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck!

Joe

Sydney

Australia.

HOW TO DISABLE POP UP MESSAGE "ONLY SECURE CONTENT IS DISPLAYED" ON INTERNET EXPLORER 10.

Have you noticed lately on your Computer, Internet Explorer shows a pop up message "Only Secure Content is displayed" each time when you load up your web browser? This happens after you performed a latest update on Windows 7. In this article I am going to show you the easy way on how to disable this annoying pop up message on your Internet Explorer 10 by following the simple steps below.

1. Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools and select Internet Options.

2. Click on Security tab. 

3. On select a zone to view or change security settings, Highlight and select Internet zone ( normally is highlighted by default).

4. Click on Custom level button under Security for this zone section.

5. A pop up window "Security setting Internet zone" will appear. Stroll down by using the down arrow located on the right side of the window and locate Display mixed content setting and click on enable.

6. Click OK and if you are asked to confirm to change the settings for this zone just click OK. 

7. Close Internet Explorer and you are done.

The next time you load up your Internet Explorer web browser, it will automatically display all secure or non-secure content on a web page without warning and the pop up message will not appear again.

Hope you find this tutorial useful to you.

Joe 
Sydney Australia.

HOW TO FIX WINDOWS 7 PCI DEVICE DRIVER ERROR ON PARALLELS DESKTOP VIRTUAL MACHINE FOR MAC.

Windows 7 PCI drivers are essential for Computers running on Windows 7 operating system. It influences the performance of your Computer in some ways especially if you are running Windows 7 on Parallels Desktop on your Mac. Usually when this error occurs, Windows 7 screen cannot go full size on Parallels Desktop. In this article I am going to show you how to fix Windows 7 PCI device driver error on your Mac without spending a dollar from your own pocket or investing in any hardware upgrades. Note: you can also detect this error on Windows 7 System Devices Manager. 

HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM:

1. Click and open Parallels Desktop Virtual Machine. On the Parallels Desktop toolbar select Virtual Machine and click on Reinstall Parallels Tools.

2. Insert Parallels Desktop CD onto your optical disk drive.

3, Load and install Parallels Tool onto Windows 7.

4. Reboot Windows 7 and the problem are fixed.

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck!

Joe

Sydney Australia.

HOW TO CHANGE USER FOLDER NAME OF A USER PROFILE IN WINDOWS 7

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to change the User folder name on your Computer running on Windows 7. If by chance you have mistyped the wrong characters on your computer by accident during installation of Windows 7 and wanted to change the name that you have mistyped or you are stuck with an unwanted computer/user name then you can follow this tutorial to change it to your desire user name. 

1. If you do not have another administrator account to use, then start by creating a new administrator account. Go to Control Panel and select User Account to create a new user account. Once you have done that you can then log off and reboot your Computer. Note: When you have finished with this tutorial, you can go and delete this newly created account.

2. Log on to an administrator account that is not the user account that you want to modify or change the name. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:/Users. Right click on the user profile folder that you want to change the name. A popup window will appear. Select Rename and type the name (new name) that you desire to change and press Enter. Note: If you are unable to rename the user folder for some reason, just reboot your computer into Safe Mode and try again. (For Mac computer press F8 + Fn keys and reboot into Safe Mode). Now close the Windows Explorer window and click on the Start Menu. On the empty Search programs and files box type regedit and press Enter.

3. In regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Windows NT>CurrentVersion>ProfileList. Expand ProfileList and select each long number S-1-5-..... key one by one until you see the old user name that you want to change. Then right click on ProfileImagePath and click on Modify. Type on the new user account name and click OK. Then close regedit window.

4. Open Control Panel and click on User Accounts. Select Manage another account and click on the old user account that you want to change the name. Click on Change the account name and type in the new desire user name instead and click Change Name. Now you will notice that the user account name has been replaced with the new user name. Close the Change an Account popup window and you are done.

5. Log off and reboot your Computer. The next time your Computer boot up, you will notice that the User name has been renamed to a new one.

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck!

Joe

Sydney Australia.

HOW TO DISABLE PASSWORD EXPIRATION ON WINDOWS 7

Are you annoyed when Windows 7 notified you with a pop up message that your password is about to expire on your Computer and you want to know how you can prevent such message from popping up? Well in this article I am going to show you the quick and easy way on how to disable the annoying expiration message on your Computer. 

FOR WINDOWS 7 PROFESSIONAL, ULTIMATE AND ENTERPRISE EDITIONS:

1. Open the Local Users and Groups Manager. First go to click Start and on the empty Search Programs and Files box just type: lusrmgr.msc and press Enter. A pop up window will appear. Double click on Users and a different pop up window will appear showing a list of users on your Computer. Double click on your username for example if your username is John, just double click it and a small pop up window will appear as shown below. 

Check the box next to Password never expires and click OK. Reboot your Computer and your are done. 

FOR WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM:

1. Run Command Prompt as Administrator by Clicking on Start and on the empty Search Programs and Files box type: Command Prompt. Right click the menu item for it and select Run as administrator.

2. Type the following command at the prompt: net accounts /maxpwage: unlimited 

3. Press Enter and you are done. 

4. Restart your Computer and Windows 7 password expiration is now disabled.

I hope you find this article useful to you. 

Good luck!

Joe

Sydney, Australia.

HOW TO SPEEDUP iTUNES 11.0.1 STARTUP

iTunes 11.0.1 is a free app for Mac OS X and Windows PC. It is the most popular free digital music and video player available at the moment for download from Apple Store. It synchronises all your music and video files content to your iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.  A most recent survey has indicated that most iTunes user have complained that it takes ages to load up iTunes on their computer. In this article, I am going to show you how to speedup iTunes 11.0.1 startup time for free.

DISABLE  SMART PLAYLIST.

Most iTunes user love the Smart Playlist feature found on iTunes. Removing Smart Playlist feature is not what I will recommend here, but editing and disabling Live Updating option will certainly result in 3 times faster startup speed. 

To remove the Live Updating feature on iTunes, just right click on the playlist. Select Edit Smart Playlist and uncheck Live Updating. Then click OK and you are done. Restart iTunes and you will notice how fast iTunes will take to startup.

DISABLE AUTOMATIC SYNC.

Usually when you connect a device onto your computer, iTunes automatically detects and starts syncing all your apps, music and video files onto your device. This could be quite annoying and may result in iTunes get freeze up for about 30 seconds or more. I suggest you disable automatic syncing to avoid this from happening.

To disable automatic syncing, just select your connected device from the left iTunes sidebar and uncheck Automatic Sync option and you are done.

DISABLE GENIUS.

As we know the iTunes Genius feature helps to discover more music from what you listen and compare your music preference with others. This feature uses a lot of resources and can cause iTunes to slow down to a crawl. To disable Genius, just go to Store menu and select Turn off Genius as shown below.

Once you have Turn off Genius, just restart iTunes and you will notice how fast iTunes will load up the next time you launch iTunes on your computer.

I hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck!

Joe

Sydney, Australia.

HOW TO FIX ERROR 3194 FROM iTUNES DURING iPHONE, iPAD OR iPOD TOUCH RESTORE.

In this article I am going to show you how to fix Error 3194 within iTunes when you try to restore your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch back to default factory settings. Error 3194 usually pop up on your computer when unsigned firmware is used on your devices, especially during some restores or iOS software downgrade of your iPhone or iPad. To fix this error you need to temporarily block Apple's firmware signing services before you can restore your devices back to the original factory settings.
Just follow the following steps carefully to resolve this error.

FOR MAC OS X OPERATING SYSTEM:

1. First of all you need to quit and close iTunes on your Mac.

2. Find and locate your host's file on your Mac. The host file is /etc/hosts.

3. Open the hosts' file with administrator privileges and then edit the host file by typing 
   74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com to the bottom of the host file. Then close to save the file.

4. Connect your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to your Mac and launch iTunes.

5. Turn on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into DFU mode by holding down the sleep and power  
    button at the same time for 10 seconds. Release the power button after 10 seconds but continue to  
    hold onto the home button until iTunes notify you with a pop up window on your Mac indicating   
    that your device is in recovery mode. Now go to the restore feature provided on iTunes to restore
   your device by clicking Restore.

Once your iOS is updated and finished on your device, you can then go back to your hosts file that you have previously edited and delete the 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com line from your hosts file. Close to save the hosts file and you are done. Once you have done that iTunes can now update all software normally for you from now on.

FOR WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM:

1. Quit and close iTunes on your Computer.

2. Find and locate your host's file. In this case is c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

3. Open the hosts' file with Windows Notepad and type 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com to the
    bottom end of the host file. Then close and save the file.

4. Connect your iPhone, iPad or iPod devices to your Computer and then launch iTunes.

5. Turn on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into DFU mode by holding down the sleep and power
    button at the same time for 10 seconds. Now release the power button but continue
    to hold down the home button until you see a pop up window appeared on iTunes notifying
    you that your device is now in recovery mode. Use the restore feature provided on iTunes to
    restore your device by selecting Restore.

Again once your iOS update is completed on your device, you can go back to your host file that you have previously edited and delete the 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com line from your hosts file. Close  and save the hosts file and you are done.

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck

Joe
Sydney, Australia.

HOW TO SPEEDUP WINDOWS 8 (QUICK & EASY TIPS)

Tips to speedup Windows 8  

In this article, I am going to show you how to fine tune and speedup Windows 8 on your computer without costing you to spend a dollar from your own pocket. The following are a few tweaks you can do to speedup Windows 8. 

1. DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES FOR MORE SPEED.

One of the best ways to speedup Windows 8 is to disable all unnecessary services running in the background. Most services can be safely be disabled and would otherwise consume up all your system resources. To disable all unnecessary services that you think you don't need, just do the following. Go to click Start and on the empty search programs and files box type msconfig and hit Enter.  A system configuration popup window will appear. Select Services and a list of services will appear. Just uncheck any services you think you don't need and click OK. Close the popup window and then choose to reboot your computer.

2, SPEEDUP FILES ACCESS.

This tweak will help you to increase your access to any files faster. All you have to do is to adjust the MouseHover time on your system registry. To tweak this just go to click Start and on the Run popup window, just type regedit and hit Enter. A Registry Editor popup window will appear as shown below. Just select HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Mouse and double click MouseHoverTime. By default the value is 400. Just change that to 100, then close the popup window and you are done.

3. MAKE MENUS LOAD FASTER.

Have you ever noticed on your computer, every time you click on any Menus it takes a while to load up? Well, here is a tweak you can do to make Menus load faster. Go to click Start, on the empty Search Programs and files tab, type regedit and press Enter. Now navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>CONTROL PANEL\DESKTOP, select MenuShowDelay, then right click it and select Modify. Change the default number from 400 to around 100, but not too less. Then close the popup window and you are done.

4. REMOVE UNUSED PROGRAMS.

Most Windows' users, tend to download free software and games to evaluate or try them out on their computers. Usually after a while, most of the software and games are no longer required to be used, and are left in their systems which takes up valuable disk space, which will in turn slow down their computers. Regularly checking and removing unwanted programs and software will definitely helps speedup your computer. To remove any unwanted programs, go to click Start>Control Panel, click on Uninstall a Programs, and scroll down the list to check out which programs you do not need and double click it. That way, it will automatically uninstall from your computer and you are done.

5. REDUCE VISUAL EFFECTS.

As we all know, Windows 8's OS interface looks very impressive, but displaying all the visual effects can be a waste of system resources and slow down your computer. To optimize your system, go to Start, right click My Computer, click Properties and clickAdvanced system settings, and go to the Advanced tab and click Settings, and choose "Adjust for best performance". If you still want to keep the look of Windows 8, I would suggest you to leave the last 4 check boxes selected. Click OK and you are done. So the next time you reboot your computer you will notice the difference how fast your computer will startup.

6. DOWNLOAD & INSTALL CCLEANER.

CCleaner is the number-one tool for cleaning your Windows PC. It protects your privacy online and makes your Computer faster and more secure. It is an easy friendly software to use, and is a very small and fast to download software. You can download for free from the link here: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Once you have installed CCleaner on your Computer, just launch it and click on Tools, and then click on Startup. You will notice a list of startup items on the pop up window. Just disable all those items you think you don't need to startup when Windows 8 boot up by clicking on the items and then click Disable. I would suggest you disable programs such as Adobe ARM, ITuneshelper, QuickTime Task, SunJavaUpdateSched, Skype etc that you don't need to run each time when Windows 8 startup. Once you have done that, close CCleaner and reboot your Computer. You can use CCleaner to clean out all your junk files and internet history and caches. You don't need these files in your computer to take up unnecessary disk space. To maintain your computer speed always optimise your computer with a good registry cleaner.

7. IMPROVE BOOTUP TIME.

Go to click Start and on the Run popup window, just type msconfig and hit Enter. A System Configuration window will appear. On the Timeout box you will notice by default the value is 30. Just change the value to 3. Next select Boot and then select Advance Options. Another popup window will appear. Check the number of processor box and select 2 instead of 1. Close the window and you will be prompted to restart your computer. Click Yes and the next time your computer reboot you will notice how fast Windows 8 bootup.

8. SPEEDUP WINDOWS 8 SHUTDOWN.

This is another simple registry tweak that you can perform yourself to speedup Windows 8 shutdown time. Go to click Start and on the Run popup window, just type regedit and hit Enter. A Registry Editor popup window will appear.  
Just select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CURRENTCONTROLSET>CONTROL and double click WaitToKillServices. Change the default value to 1000 and reboot your computer. The next time Windows 8 shutdown you will notice how fast it will be. 

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck!

Joe
Sydney, Australia.

 

HOW TO SPEEDUP WINDOWS 8 RUNNING ON PARALLELS DESKTOP FOR MAC

This tutorial shows you how to optimize Parallels Desktop for Mac for the best performance of Windows 8 operating as a guest OS on your Mac. First of all before you fine tune your Windows 8 operating system, you should first give Parallels Desktop configuration options a good tune up so that you get the best performance out of Windows 8 as a guest OS on your Mac.

In this article, I am going to show you how to fine tune Parallels Desktop 8 and Windows 8 running as a guest OS on your Mac without costing you to spend a dollar from your own pocket. The following adjustment should be making before you startup Windows 8 on Parallels Desktop. First load up Parallels Desktop Virtual Machine on your Mac. Click to select Virtual Machine option located on the Parallels Desktop taskbar and select Configure. A small popup window will appear. Select General and then click the lock button located at the bottom left-hand corner to make changes. Another popup window will appear prompting you to enter your password. Just type in your password to unlock and make changes. Go to CPUs option on the popup window and you will notice that by default the CPUs is 1. Click the down arrow and change that to 2. Then go to Memory and change the default setting of 1000MB to 1536MB by moving the memory slider bar. Finally click the lock button to prevent any further changes. Close the popup window and you are done.

Now you can startup Windows 8 on your Parallels Desktop Virtual Machine. Once Windows 8 is launched, you can customize the performance of the guest OS itself. The following are a few tweaks that you can do to speedup Windows 8.

1. DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES FOR MORE SPEED.

One of the best ways to speedup Windows 8 is to disable all unnecessary services running in the background. Most services can be safely be disabled and would otherwise consume up all your system resources. To disable all unnecessary services that you think you don't need, just do the following. Hold down the Command key and press R. A small Run popup window will appear and on the empty space just type msconfig and hit Enter. A system configuration popup window will appear. Select Services and a list of services will appear. Just uncheck any services you think you don't need and click OK. Close the popup window and then choose to reboot your computer.

2, SPEEDUP FILES ACCESS.

This tweak will help you to increase your access to any files faster. All you have to do is to adjust the MouseHover time on your system registry. Hold down the Command key and press R. On the Run popup window just type regedit and hit Enter. A Registry Editor popup window will appear as shown below. Just select HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Mouse and double click MouseHoverTime. By default the value is 400. Just change that to 100, then close the popup window and you are done.

3. IMPROVE BOOTUP TIME.

Hold down the Command key and press R. On the Run popup window just type msconfig and hit Enter. A System Configuration window will appear. On the Timeout box you will notice by default the value is 30. Just change the value to 3. Next select Boot and then select Advance Options. Another popup window will appear. Check the number of processor box and select 2 instead of 1. Close the window and you will be prompted to restart your computer. Click Yes and the next time your computer reboot you will notice how fast Windows 8 bootup.

4. SPEEDUP WINDOWS 8 SHUTDOWN.

This is another simple registry tweak that you can perform yourself to speedup Windows 8 shutdown time. Hold down the Command key and press R. On the Run popup window, just type regedit and hit Enter. A Registry Editor popup window will appear. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CURRENTCONTROLSET>CONTROL and double click WaitToKillServices. Change the default value to 1000 and reboot your Windows 8. The next time Windows shutdown you will notice how fast it will be. 

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck!

Joe
Sydney, Australia.
 

HOW TO SPEEDUP MAC OS X MOUNTAIN LION 10.8.3

The new Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 is one of the world's most powerful and advance desktop operating system ever developed in today's computer technology. Like in any other operating system there are always a need to tweak and improve its performance. The following are a few recommendations and tips that I would personally suggest to do, that can really speedup your Mac without spending a dollar from your own pocket or investing in any hardware upgrades

1. CLEAR OUT UNNECESSARY STARTUP ITEMS.

Whenever you install any software or applications onto your Mac, some Apps automatically set themselves as a startup item, which causes them to load up every time you turn on your computer. Those unnecessary Apps loading up on the background on startup actually slows down your boot up time. I would suggest you clear out those startup Apps from your startup items list. To do so you can find out what is listed on your startup items list by browsing to Apple Menu/System Preferences/Accounts/login Items. Clear out those startup items that you think you don't need to run on startup and be cautious of what you are removing. Otherwise some Apps might not work the next time you restart your Mac. To remove them, just select the item by clicking it and then click the minus button located at the bottom of the list. Finally click the lock to prevent any changes.

2. RESET THE SMC (SYSTEM MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER)

The SMC can cause problems related to your Mac built-in fan, lights, video display, power supply and general performance & functionality. So by resetting the SMC it can help to speedup your Mac OS X. To reset the SMC, just follow the following steps.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Plug in the power adaptor onto your Computer.
3. Press Shift + Control + Option keys and the power button at the same time.
4. Release all the keys and the power button simultaneously.
5. Press the power button to turn on your Mac.

3. CLEAN YOUR HARD DRIVE (FREE UP STORAGE SPACE).

Your hard drive space when full can cause your Computer to slow down and eventually fails. No matter how big your hard drive is, someday it is going to be filled up if you are not careful. Especially these days most users tend to keep photos image files, music files, videos clips, etc that actually takes up hugh space on your hard drive. The next thing you should do, is offload all your music, movies and photos files to an external hard drive. In doing so, you can ensure that your hard drive will not be filled up and slow down.

Mac OS X  Mountain Lion uses the free space on your hard drive as virtual memory to run efficiently. So if your hard drive is too full, it will definitely slow down your Mac. Regularly cleaning up your hard drive will certainly speedup your Computer.
With the increased amount of Internet browsing and downloading users do these days, temporary Internet files, cookies and history tend to build up on your hard drive which can actually slow down your Mac's performance too. I would suggest that you download and install iboostup App to clean those unwanted files. You can download the application from here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iboostup/id484829041?mt=12

4. RUN DISK PERMISSIONS REGULARLY.

Disk permissions are a disk utility that helps to verify and repair your disk for permission differences. In Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 or earlier version, when the user run disk verification or repair disk permissions, Disk Utility searches and reviews each of the .bom files in /Library/Receipts/ and compares its list to the actual permissions on each file listed. If the permissions differ, Disk Utility will report and list out the difference (and corrects them) if you use the Repair feature. Running disk permissions regularly will definitely ensure that your Mac runs smoothly, efficiently and error free.

5. REMOVE UNNECESSARY APPS.

Most Mac users tend to download a lot of free applications and games to review and try out. Usually after a while, most of the Apps and games that are downloaded onto your Mac are not useful anymore and left in your system which takes up space. Regularly checking and removing unnecessary Apps that are not needed will help free up your hard disk space and boost up your computer speed. I would suggest that you download and install AppCleaner 2.0.5 to uninstall any applications that you do not required. You can download the free application from here: http://en.softonic.com/s/trash-app-mac:mac. This Apps help to clean up all unnecessary or related files that are left on your Mac whenever you delete any Apps from your computer system.

6. MINIMIZE MEMORY INTENSIVE APPS.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion has integrated several features which are not frequently used by most users. This feature includes Speech Recognition, Bluetooth, Internet Sharing and Universal Access. If you think you do not use these apps on a regular basis then it is better to disable them as it will save some of your CPU resources and Ram memory.

7. DISABLE UNNECESSARY DASHBOARD WIDGETS.

Dashboard widgets consume both real and virtual memory. You can reclaim this resource memories by closing or disabling non-essential widgets on your Mac to improve your computer speed. To disable or close any unused widget, just follow the steps below.

1. Open Dashboard
2. Press and hold the Option key. Then move the mouse pointer over a widget you wish to close.
3. The widget close button (X) will appear in the upper left hand corner of the widget.
4. Click the widget close button (X) and you are done.

8. DOWNLOAD & INSTALL CCLEANER.

CCleaner is the number-one tool for cleaning your Mac. It protects your privacy online and makes your Mac computer boostup faster and more secure. It is an easy friendly software to use, and is a very small and fast to download software. You should get it while it is free from the Apple Apps store. To download Ccleaner you need a Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later. You can download for free from the link here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id499268461, To speedup your Mac just run Ccleaner regularly to help cleanup all caches, cookies and temporary files from your Mac.

Hope the above tweaks can help you to speedup your Mac.

Joe
Sydney, Australia.

HOW TO SPEEDUP SAFARI ON MAC OS X MOUNTAIN LION 10.8

Safari is one of the world's most innovative, easy to use and elegant browser designed to enable you to see web pages full screen and free of any desktop distractions. It takes advantage of Multi-Touch technology built into your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices. Safari web pages can fill the window of your device when you turn them on. You can even zoom the web pages in and out just by double tapping or by pinching and extending your fingers on your device screen. Safari is indeed a blazing fast and easy to use browser, but it can go slow if your browsing history and caches piles up or if it is storing heaps of auto fill entries. In this article I am going to show you how to keep your browser healthy and running faster on Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8..

EMPTY THE CACHE

As we know, Safari uses caching to save recently viewed websites on your hard drive. If your cache gets too big or corrupted, it will cause your computer to slow down to a crawl.
One easy way to ensure your browser is always healthy and fast is to regularly clear all your browsing history and caches.
To empty the cache memory on your Mac, just go to the Safari Menu and click Empty Cache. A popup window will appear explaining what will happen. Just click OK to proceed and you are done.

CHANGE SAFARI HOMEPAGE

By default, Safari homepage is Apple's site which usually takes a while to load up every time you turn your browser on. I would suggest you change that to Google homepage which will load up faster. When changing Google as your homepage, make sure you turn off auto complete function as it will slow down your browser. To do so just start up your browser and on the address column type:http://www.google.com/webhpcomplete=0&Hl=en. Once Google homepage is launched, you can set it as your homepage by going to your Safari Menu bar and click onto Safari, then click on Preferences, go to Homepage and click "Set to Current page".Now you are done and the next time you launch your browser Google will be your homepage, and you will notice how fast your browser loads up.

RESET SAFARI

Apple provide a quick and easy way to empty cache, erase browsing history, clear cookies and reset auto fill information on your Mac. This can usually provide a quick fix for improving your Mac's performance but the disadvantage is you will need to re-enter again all your log in information and password on websites that had previously stored data in cookies on your computer. To reset Safari just go to Safari menu and click Reset Safari. A popup window will appear explaining what will happen. Just click OK to proceed and it will reset Safari to default.

CHECK & DISABLE EXTENSIONS

Extensions and plugins on Safari are useful features that help to perform many tasks such as blocking unwanted pop up ads, but occasionally they can cause Safari to slow down to a crawl or even crash. It is advisable to ensure that all the extensions and plugins are always up to date, and try to disable those you do not use by manually turning them off. To manage the extensions and plugins on Safari, just follow the following steps.

1. Open go to Safari Menu and open preferences.
2. Navigate to the Extensions tab and disable whichever extensions you don't need or those you think may be causing Safari to slow down. You can choose to either enable or disable all extensions with the slider switch or select each extension individually from the left hand side panel by using the Enable checkbox located on the main window. To update any extensions individually, just click Updates at the bottom the side panel beneath the list of extensions.

SETUP NEW TAB

By default, Safari homepage Toolbar does not show any New Tab. Say for example if you are browsing on a certain webpage and at the same time you need to look up some other websites, you will not be able to find any New Tab to open them. Here I am going to show you how to add New Tab on your Safari Toolbar. First go to your Toolbar and right click on the grey empty space on your Toolbar, a tiny popup window will appear. Click customize Toolbar. Another popup window will appear requesting you to drag your favourite items onto the toolbar. Just drag the New Tab icon from the list onto the top right hand corner next to your Toolbar. Then click Done. Now the next step you need to do is go to click on Safari>Preferences, a popup window will appear. Go to click the down arrow on the New Tab open with and check empty page or homepage (if you are using Google as your homepage). Close the popup window and you are done.

Hope you enjoy this article!

Joe
Sydney, Australia.