Digital computers have been around for over 80 years (the first was Konrad Zuse’s Z3, built in 1941). Because of that, a lot of myth and legend have built up around them. Some of the things that are widely believed about them have a kernel of truth; or, maybe once upon a time there’d been some truth to them, but no longer.
I’d like to go over some widely-believed myths and misconceptions. At the very least they may save you time. And they might even save you money!
Lots of people believe that computers need regular “cleaning.” Supposedly the registry can accumulate junk. Files can tally up and bring your computer to a crawl. There is some truth to this … but only some.
It’s true: If there are a large number of files (in the multiple thousands), in certain key locations on a computer (say, in C:\Windows\temp, or in a user’s temporary file location), that can cause the computer to slow down marginally. The reason? As programs and services run, they sometimes create temporary files. Each new temp file must have a different filename than those already in that location. Coming up with new random but unique filenames becomes more difficult, the more files are already present.
Also true: If a disk is close to full, more computational time gets taken up managing that space. Modern file systems actually reserve space for deleted files; as a drive fills up, some of those are dropped off. When a disk becomes full, more time is taken up managing the creation of new files and purging traces of deleted ones. Web browser caches — or locally-stored copies of files that browsers have retrieved from Web sites and keep locally in case they’re called for again — can become increasingly difficult to manage, too, as a drive runs low on space.
But the conditions required to reach a state in which performance takes a noticeable hit, are getting rarer, as processors and drives become faster and faster, and as OSes and file systems are improved. Early versions of Windows, Unix, and Mac OS actually ran into problems of this kind quite often. It’s not as common these days.
In particular, the idea that the Windows registry needs to be cleaned periodically, is absurd. The registry is stored in a group of files. There are six of them; five are in C:\Windows\system32\config, and the sixth is in the currently-logged-in user’s profile, C:\Users\Username.
About the only thing that’s true about this myth is that these registry files can, in fact, accumulate some junk. When an application is installed, then uninstalled, registry branches created by it can be left behind. If enough of them are installed and uninstalled, it’s possible for there to be many of these. But for the most part, these are worked with only by the software that created them. Once that software is gone, they go untouched. Their contents will be loaded at startup or login, but after that, nothing happens with any of it.
The five “system” registry files are read when Windows starts up. The sixth, belonging to the user, is read when the person logs in. These are the only times that the size of these files matters. But reading the registry files is only a small component of what the computer does when Windows starts up and when the user logs in. At worst, a bloated registry with many branches left behind by applications that have been removed, may — just may! — add a second, or two or three, to startup or login time.
What can cause actual trouble is registry corruption. This can occur, for example, if a computer loses power during an operation in which information is being written to the registry. That could leave invalid or conflicting entries in the registry which can, in turn, cause Windows or applications to behave oddly or even crash outright. Registry corruption can also result from bad program installers and uninstallers. They can sometimes create, or leave behind, invalid registry entries.
But it’s not only power loss or bad installers/uninstallers that can corrupt the registry; so too can registry cleaners that aren’t programmed well and damage entries that really ought to be left alone.
You read that right. Ironically, those tools that some folks think are necessary to keep the registry running well, can actually damage it instead.
Bottom line: You don’t need paid “computer cleaning” software, and leave your registry alone! Windows does have its own cleanup tool (for files and storage, anyway). Actually, there are two of them in Windows 10 and 11. One can be run by hitting Windows-R, typing in cleanmgr then Enter. The other can be opened by clicking the Start button, then Settings, then System, then Storage, then Cleanup recommendations. Some cleaning takes place automatically during downtime. Having to run these tools, yourself, shouldn’t be a regular affair.
As for the registry, it should be “repaired” only if something has gone very wrong with it (which won’t be common). Unfortunately there aren’t many registry repair tools that truly focus on fixing specific problems in the registry. Because of that, they tend to suggest more changes than are needed and can introduce new problems that hadn’t previously been present. The best tool I’m aware of, for this, which isn’t likely to cause tangential problems is Auslogics’ Registry Cleaner (https://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-cleaner/).
Any discussion of disk defragmentation depends on whether a drive is magnetic (i.e. a collection of spinning platters, aka a “spinny” drive) or an SSD (solid state drive). There’s a massive difference between them.
A long time ago when drive space was at a premium, they were typically much closer to full than most drives are today. Also, the disks themselves did not spin fast and the reading and writing heads weren’t as quick to read or write data to them. Juggling new and deleted data often caused files, especially large ones, to end up stored in blocks that weren’t contiguous.
Over time, a drive could become a confused jumble of data that was saved all over the place. As programs ran and data was read, this could force the reading heads to have to move around all the time, in order to read the entire file. This delayed the reading and writing of data.
The solution was drive defragmentation, in which those blocks of data were shuffled around, literally, so that files were all in sequence on the drives themselves.
These days, drive fragmentation is much less of a problem than it had been. Even though the performance of magnetic drives can still be affected by fragmentation, this is far less of a problem now than it had been, say, 20 years ago. Modern filesystems are capable of anticipating how many physical storage units (sectors, clusters, etc.) any given file requires, and can purposely write their data in positions where they won’t be fragmented. Also, the speed of reading and writing has increased to the point where there’s little real difference in performance if a file is in, say, 5 separated blocks rather than in one contiguous chain.
With solid state drives, fragmentation becomes a complete non-issue. The location of data within the storage array of an SSD makes no difference in terms of how quickly an entire file can be read. Each cell of data is read at exactly the same speed as every other, and there are no reading heads that must physically move around in order to get to all the cells that contain the file’s data. Actually, defragmenting an SSD can harm it, by forcing more reads and writes than would otherwise be needed and thus aging the drive prematurely.
Windows disables defragmentation of SSDs. You can’t defragment one even if you wished to, using built-in tools. It might be possible with third-party tools, but those are not recommended, and many of those likewise won’t attempt defragmenting SSDs, either.
Bottom line: Modern operating systems perform regular fragmentation checks on magnetic drives. When a large enough amount is detected, they’ll be defragmented during the system’s downtime. They won’t even attempt defragmentation of SSDs. Unless you have a magnetic drive and regularly and frequently write, read, and delete very-large files on that magnetic drive (say, rendering video sequences), the bottom line is: With modern hardware and operating systems, disk defragmentation is just not a thing you should ever be concerned with.
It’s commonly thought — especially by fans of the Apple company and its products — that Macs are impervious to viruses. Unfortunately for them, this isn’t true. Macs can be affected by malware, of various types (including viruses).
For Mac owners who want evidence of that, look no further than the MRT.app application which is part of the Mac operating system. The “MRT” part stands for “malware removal tool.” Its presence on your computer shows that even Apple acknowledges the reality that malware can infect Mac OS computers.
This tool periodically scans the Mac as part of its background-maintenance services, and can be launched by Apple if needed, should a major outbreak of malware ravage Mac computers.
Fans of Linux and other Unix-type operating systems often claim their OS is impervious to viruses and malware. Unfortunately, they’re just as wrong as Apple device owners are.
The reason people believe Macs are malware-proof is due to the relatively small market share of Mac OS. There just aren’t as many Mac computers out there as there are Windows computers, so naturally, malware authors tend to concentrate on Windows. However, that doesn’t mean there’s no Mac OS malware, it just means there’s less of it in the wild.
Bottom line: We formerly recommended Mac owners use Sophos for Mac (https://home.sophos.com/en-us/download-mac-security). That now exists only a paid version. We also recommend Intego Internet Security for Mac (https://www.intego.com/) which likewise is paid software. Other paid and free antiviruses for Mac are listed here: https://www.macworld.com/article/668850/best-mac-antivirus-software.html. There may not be as much Mac OS malware as there is for Windows, but that doesn’t mean no protection is needed.
Drivers are software that allows an operating system to interact with hardware. Essentially, they extend the operating system to a device, allowing it to be worked as though it were built into the computer. For a very long time, many computer owners have taken drivers seriously and constantly try to ensure they’re updated at all times.
Drivers essentially are embedded in the operating system and in many cases operate below it. Because of this, drivers can affect the entire computer, and in the case of malicious drivers or drivers that harbor potential exploits, can commandeer it. Also, poorly-written drivers can cause instability within the computer as a whole.
This is why so many computer owners take driver updates as seriously as they do. They don’t want risky or unstable drivers on their computers. That’s understandable.
The same thing that makes some computer owners want to keep drivers as up-to-date as possible, is also the reason it may not be a good idea to constantly update them. Bottom line: Since they underpin the operating system, once a computer and a device are working normally, it’s best just to leave things alone. Updating a driver could introduce instability, or a security risk, if the newer driver happens to be of lesser quality than the one already installed.
There’s also another problem: Driver-updating applications. Sometimes — especially on computer- or technology-related Web sites — you’ll see driver updaters advertised. Resist the urge to download and install them. Most of these are adware that will constantly nag you about supposed driver updates your computer needs (which might not be “needed” at all) and keep throwing ads at you.
Instead, stick close to programs that are supplied by the computer manufacturer (such as HP’s Support Assistant, Dell’s Support Assist, Lenovo’s Vantage, etc.) or component manufacturers (such as Intel’s Driver & Support Assistant). If something isn’t working right on your computer, run that and install any updates recommended. Those should work correctly since they should have been vetted by the manufacturer.
When it comes to external items such as printers and scanners, the manufacturer of the device will, from time to time, issue updated drivers. In these cases, it’s best to update drivers only if something isn’t working correctly. Drivers for a printer (for example) that churns out excellent prints, shouldn’t need to be updated. But, it might be necessary if (again, for example) that you install a new program that isn’t printing correctly. In those cases an updated driver may help.
Although they aren’t “drivers” per se, firmware updates for external devices like printers and scanners can be lumped in with this discussion, mostly because they’re distributed in the same way that drivers are. For home users, the same rule applies: If a device works normally, there should be no need to update its firmware.
For business users, it’s a different consideration. External devices and peripherals add to one’s security footprint, and malefactors can theoretically use them to compromise a network. It may be in a business’s best interests to keep device firmware up-to-date, since firmware updates can plug up any security holes.
Even so, caution is advised. Newer firmware can introduce problems that hadn’t previously existed. Businesses will want to have ways to roll back firmware updates, if it should be needed.
All major browsers (Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi, etc.) offer a form of private or incognito browsing. Typically this is invoked by opening a new window in private or incognito mode.
One would think one’s Web browsing, in a private or incognito session, would actually be private or incognito. It turns out that it is, but only to an extent. The limitations on it are due to the nature of how Web browsing works.
First, the truly private or incognito part of this, is on the computer itself. When you start a private or incognito session, everything you do is flushed when the session is closed. Cached files, browsing history, cookies, even passwords, session tokens, etc. are all deleted when you close that private window.
What this means is that, in general, what you did and where you went during that private session, are wiped from the computer. Someone else can’t walk up and determine what you did — not by reviewing your browser history, cookies, etc.
That’s the good news. The bad news? All those Web sites you went to, while you were browsing “privately,” retain information about you. Partly, this is in the nature of what you’re doing. When you browse a Web site, your computer asks a Web site for data, that it then displays. And how does that happen? The Web site knows where that request came from (that is, it knows your public or WAN IP address), and sends the requested data there.
The Web site also gets, from your browser — even in private or incognito mode — something known as a “user agent string.” This is a line of text that tells the Web site a little about your computer, so that it can return the data your computer requests, in an appropriate format.
Here is one sample “user agent string”:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/122.0.0.0
To a Web server, this implies: Edge 122 on Windows 10. Note that this isn’t precisely the case, for this string. The browser I used to generate this string, was Edge version 122, to be sure, but the operating system was actually Windows 11, not 10.
While this isn’t an enormous amount of information about you, and it doesn’t quite hit the mark with 100% accuracy, it does reveal something about you, and in turn that means the Web site can — over time, assuming you visit it often, and coupled with other data it has about you such as your IP address — build up something of a digital fingerprint about you.
Some Web sites and services have additional ways to see what you were doing, even in private mode. Advertisements you see on Web pages can accumulate information on you, within the service that provides the ads. Sites and services you log into, such as Gmail, will certainly have information about you and can peg you fairly tightly, at least to the WAN IP address you had at the moment you were there. In essence, it makes no difference if your browser was in private mode or not, if you’re on sites like that, to the Web site or service in question. They have total visibility to everything you did.
As it happens, Google (the provider of Gmail, among many other services, including the Internet’s largest ad-hosting service) ended up having to settle a class-action lawsuit over this. They were forced to admit users of their Chrome browser in incognito mode weren’t truly “incognito” — to Google — while using their services or going to sites that host their ads.
Bottom line: Don’t browse the Internet in “private” or “incognito” mode thinking your browsing is truly “private” or “incognito,” on the Internet. It isn’t. Your browser may have cleaned up whatever information it collected during your private browsing session, but the rest of the Internet didn’t care about that.
Lots of stores and Web sites sell cables they claim will provide a better signal, a clearer picture, superior sound, if you just pay more for higher-quality products. For the most part, this is not true at all. You won’t get a better picture on your TV if you have a $50 HDMI cable connecting your Roku to it, versus a $8 one from Monoprice.
There are some differences between certain kinds of cables. Cable ratings can, and often do, matter. Cat5e network cables can handle gigabit transmission speed, but Cat6 network cables are capable of 10 gigabit speeds (depending on length).
HDMI cables also have ratings. Two of the most common ratings you’ll see at the moment are 1.4 and 2.0. HDMI 1.4 cables carry up to 4K display data while 2.0 cables can handle up to 8K displays. There are other ratings, of course, including 2.1a, and up to (as I type this) 2.2. These ratings will tell you what the cable is capable of.
Another consideration is the physical quality of the cable itself. Some cables simply aren’t well-made. A lot of very-cheap cables come from the Far East and are sold in places like dollar stores. Tread carefully with these.
A 3 or 6 foot HDMI 2.0 cable — which is all but guaranteed to work fine in almost any home — should only cost a few dollars. However, some retailers (I’m looking at you, Crutchfield!) have HDMI 2.0 and 2.1 cables costing upwards of $200.
There simply is no way that an HDMI 2.0 cable costing over $200 can give you a “better” picture than one costing $8. And there’s a reason for that: The signal they’re carrying is digital! That is, it’s a stream of electronic ones and zeroes. As long as the bandwidth (or, the number of ones and zeroes that can move along it, at any given moment) of the cable meets or exceeds the digital stream being sent along it, the picture literally cannot be any different, in any way. It’s those digits that define the picture and sound. As long as they get from point A to point B, neither the video nor audio can look or sound any better or worse.
Bottom line: Pay no attention to the hype about better pictures and/or sound from high-priced cables. Tell those lying hyperpriced cable salespeople their $250 platinum-plated diamond-encrusted wonders are no better than the $8 Amazon Essentials job that was shipped to you overnight.
There are lots of things people believe about batteries, these days. Among them is that it’s somehow bad to leave your phone, or laptop, or tablet, on a charger all night. Supposedly that will make the battery overload, causing the battery to degrade, or the battery to heat up, or worst of all, cause it to burst into flames.
This idea appears to have resulted from real-life events in which a device (or a few of them, or even many) was left connected to a charger all night, and failed disastrously. Among the more famous examples was when a number of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 batteries leaked or exploded. It’s something that actually did happen. Samsung had to exchange a large number of that model phone.
Stories like these make headlines, in the technology press, anyway, and occasionally even in mass-media outlets. They’re the kind of thing that makes people perk up and pay attention — and wonder if their own devices will burn their houses down.
The truth about events like that is, they didn’t happen because people charged their phones all night. They happened because of manufacturing defects. In Samsung’s case it was due to poorly-designed components inside the batteries that failed. Essentially, the batteries short-circuited themselves.
Also, some ultra-cheap batteries, cables, and chargers can cause problems. Again, this not because the batteries are prone, by nature, to melting down and catching fire. It’s because of poor quality manufacturing.
Phones, tablets, laptops, and almost any other kind of device that recharges, are typically manufactured with power management built in. These are chips that monitor battery charge, and other factors, and decide whether or not to accept incoming electricity.
In the case of laptops, there is actually three-way electricity regulation: The battery itself has a power management chip; so does the laptop motherboard; and so too does the power adapter (often called “the brick”). All of these literally talk to each other constantly while the laptop is plugged in and getting a charge.
In a lot of cases, electricity management happens invisibly. In others, there are telltale signs that it’s happening. It’s not unusual, for example, for a smartphone to charge up to 100% while on a charger, perhaps stay at that level for a while, then drop to 99 or 98%, and then go back up to 100% charge. This is that electricity-regulation taking place.
Bottom line: Go ahead and charge that thing up, all night. You aren’t going to damage your phone, tablet, or laptop, and you’re certainly not going to be blown to kingdom come by it. Unless you bought super-cheap garbage equipment.
While I’m on the subject of battery myths, a lot of folks will tell you that batteries need to be drained completely, every once in a while, then charged back up to 100%, in order to preserve them. But not only is this not true, these days, doing that might actually harm them.
Until about 15 years ago or so, nickel-cadmium (or NiCad) batteries were the standard in laptops. This type of battery was subject to a kind of memory effect. If the battery was repeatedly drained to a particular level, it would “remember” this as its low point when charging was needed. After that, when it dropped to that level, voltage output would drop as the battery awaited its expected recharge.
The solution was to periodically allow the battery to drain completely. This way, the memory effect wouldn’t be triggered. The battery would continue putting out the same voltage as it drained, right up until it reached 0% charge.
Nearly all laptop, tablet, and smartphone batteries these days are lithium ion (or Li-ion) batteries. Their chemistry is very different. Without getting too deeply into the weeds about it, these aren’t subject to the same memory effect. Quite the opposite, some research has found that frequently draining Li-ion batteries and charging them quickly back up to 100% can have a detrimental effect on their internal chemistry.
There is one aspect of Li-ion batteries that separates them from NiCad batteries; they don’t have particular metals as their cathodes and anodes. The chemical content of each chemical element in it (i.e. the cathode, anode, and the electrolyte in between) can vary. This means there’s a lot of variation in battery designs. In turn this means there’s a wide variation in how well they work. What you’ll find, because of this, is that Li-ion battery performance can differ, sometimes greatly, from one device to another. The charging- and power-management I referred to in the previous myth takes on more importance, because of this.
Also, like any kind of battery, the ability of a Li-ion battery can and will degrade over time. They are sealed chemical devices, and that just can’t be avoided. You can expect to get about 3 years of good service out of one, and may find after that, it seems to discharge a little faster than it used to. It should still work, though, and be serviceable for sometime after that.
Bottom line: Don’t purposely fully drain your smartphone, tablet, or laptop battery. Go ahead and start recharging it at whatever point in its discharge cycle you happen to be.
This myth takes two forms. What makes both of them myths is that there’s no universal, one-size-fits-all rule involved here. What should be done with any given computer depends on the environment, how it’s used, and which services (if any) it provides to the rest of your network.
Way back in the day, when personal computers (as in, IBM PCs, Apple IIs, TRS-80s, etc.) were new in businesses and homes, they tended to consume a lot of electricity (sleep modes and power management weren’t a thing, back then). So people turned them off at the end of the day, to limit their electric bills.
But over time, it was discovered that powering computers up and down all the time “worked” them too hard and could reduce their lifespans. This was especially true in the case of computers with early hard drives which were not known for their durability.
The result was conflicting experts telling people they should always to shut down their computers, or they should never shut them down. Fun times!
Technological improvement happened. Computers now generally consume less power than in the early days. They also have power management along with sleep and hibernate capabilities. Leaving one running all night won’t necessarily kill your electric bill. The components inside them also are less subject to electrical “wear” that resulted from being powered down and back up.
Generally, it’s not harmful to leave your computer running. Just remember to log out or sign out when you leave it. This will close any applications you had been using. But background services will keep running, maintenance tasks will take place, and operating system updates will load.
Also, circumstances may dictate that your computer has to remain up and running. This would be the case if your computer is acting as a server on your network (perhaps it’s sharing some files, or a printer). In that case, there is no controversy. The decision has already been made for you. It has to remain running.
Still, if you’ll be away from your computer for a few days, it’d be best to shut it down. There’s no point in paying for several days of power if you aren’t going to be using it. If your computer has sensitive information on it, you may also want to power it off; but this is typically infrequent for home computers.
Bottom line: Go ahead and leave your computer running at the end of the day. Or, don’t! Consider the circumstances and environment, and make a decision based on that, not on what someone told you is best for all computers.