Services over Quantity.

       I get asked this question a lot "Myles, should I uninstall my apps to keep my Android device running fast". The answer is yes if you don't want to investigate further, and no if you want it. But what about applications that I didn't install that slow down my device? If you can't disable it, Hibernate it with Greenify. So it is not the application its self that slows down your device (Unless you are using F2FS), so what is it? It is the service the application has! These services are used by the application to provide some sort of service to it. Either that be a notification or other thing the app does. Unlike applications, services can be very hard to disable and sometimes the application won't run without them. To find out which applications on your device use services, go to settings, applications (or application manager), go to running and you will see which applications use a service. Now that you have found out which applications use services, now let's disable them. 

Download the free application "Greenify" and purchase the donation package (OPTIONAL)

While I am assuming you are not rooted, you will be running greenify is non root mode. So select the applications that Greenify prompts you to select with running services. Then, go to the menu button and create the widget for fast hibernation. There you go! A quick and easy way to save your Android device and its applications. One major note of this is that when an application is in hibernation, you will not receive notifications from that application. For example, if I hibernate KIK, I will not receive message until I manually open KIK. 

Fixes for performance! Windows edition!

            Windows 8 for me has always had either great results or lack luster results. But that didn't stop me from finding a new laptop with it! But, Windows 8 and its changes has taught me to expect change in ways you wouldn't expect it. For example, I really don't like that if you put your cursor at the top of your display while using a Metro app, you will see an annoying, long, black bar with the application name and options to minimize or to close the application altogether. But enough of the recent changes, and to make something clearer, I make these to share my ideas about technology!

1. Changing your pagefile settings. When getting a new laptop that is based off of Intel Silvermont architecture, I knew my problem wasn't CPU related. (Benchmarks confirmed this) So, I had this issue when changing workloads, like going from doing homework to playing a game. I would be using LibreOffice and Google Chrome for my school work (I am a online student) and my processor would be running somewhere from 1.8 GHz with only 2 cores having usage above 50%. So that eliminated CPU issues and I then went to see what was using so much of my I/O. I then realized it was the pagefile and superfetch. After manually changing my pagefile settings and disabling Superfetch, my performance remained stable when switching workloads.

2. Stay with the same antivirus. After using Microsoft Security Essentials for years on Windows 7, I wondered who could provide the same or even better coverage. But, after switching antivirus, I noticed that every time I had to re-install all of my Metroapps. VERY ANONYING. So, I am going to make this recommendation that you don't change antivirus unless there is absolute reason to, at all.

3. Stop using PC maintenance programs! Frequently, when I go to fix someone's computer I see they have some sort of maintenance program and it claims to have found thousands of errors within the system. Well, in an attempt the scare the user, the program will look for temporary files (Mostly lots of small files) and look for registry "errors". While I am not going to tell you what is best for your system, I am going to tell you what was optimal for me or others. But, in actuality, you don't need any PC cleanup application unless it is CCleaner. Why CCleaner? It actually looks for temporary files and is proven to do its job properly, and at no cost.

4. Remove unneeded files and programs. While this is confusing and because a PC can have so many different configurations, this may or may not actually work for you. Unless that application uses a service or is always present in RAM. While all PC users should always run some sort of cleanup. It may actually not be needed as frequently. A PC with a SSD should always be checking for TRIM and a PC with a mechanical drive should defragment their drives. Always remove bloatware, always remove anything you don't use. If it is difficult to remove Google it, if it comes up as being essential, keep it.