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Q: I have two questions for you. First, I have seen an increasing number of television ads for computer programs that can be downloaded which either ‘speed up’ one’s computer. Are these ‘TV ads’ truthful? I realize that they are not free and are a ‘pay for services’ operation, but are they all and do they do all that they represent themselves as being able to do or is there an inherent ‘danger’ in logging onto them? Second question. From time to time, I get a message on my computer that my ‘memory is too low’ and that the computer is adding to it. Do I need to have additional Ram or Gig (or whatever) put into my computer? Or, is this an expansion of memory that my system just ‘normally’ accomplishes?

– Henry D.
Crestview, Florida

A: Henry D.? Aren’t you a rap mogul that died last week? Oh wait – that was Heavy D. I didn’t think he lived in Crestview. Great questions though, Henry. I too, have noticed all those commercials, not just on TV, but on the radio. They claim anything from a noticeable increase in performance, to doubling your computer’s speed. Let’s get one thing straight right from the beginning: Short of modifying your PC’s hardware (such as adjusting the clock speed of your processor) there is no way to physically speed up the processing of your computer. What these products do is clean out garbage that Windows allows to accumulate (Thanks, Bill!) so the computer spends less time housekeeping, and has more time to spend on things that you want it to do. It may appear to run faster, because programs open a tad quicker. Whether the ads are truthful or not depends on the ad, and on what is making your machine slow. Almost all of these services work by cleaning junk out of the system registry; but unless your computer is in such terrible shape that it’s barely running anymore, the odds are that any performance boost you receive would be so small as to be practically imperceptible. There are also internet bad-guys out there that are foisting off malware, claiming that it’s a product to speed-up your computer. The odds are that anyone paying to advertise on TV or the radio is legit though, even if their product doesn’t do what they claim. So, are they worth it? For me, no, but that’s because I can confidently go through Windows and remove trash on my own. For someone with less system knowledge, it may be worthwhile as a housekeeping tool, as long as you keep a realistic expectation of any performance increase.

I think you misquoted the message in your second question. I’d bet my tin-plated badge from Geek school that you left a word out, and the message actually said “Virtual memory is too low”. As I’ve said in past columns, virtual memory is a Windows trick for making it seem like your computer has more RAM memory than it actually has. Windows allocates a block of space on the hard disk, and uses it as if it was RAM. This works, and allows you to load more stuff into memory than would otherwise fit into your physical amount of RAM. The problem is that hard disk access is several orders of magnitude slower than RAM access, so every time a program needs to access something that’s in virtual memory, it slows the system down to the speed of the hard disk. Windows automatically manages the amount of virtual memory that it uses, but if you’re seeing this message, it means that you have too many programs open simultaneously for the amount of RAM you have. Increasing the amount of RAM in your computer will speed it up quite a bit. If your system is already at its maximum amount of RAM, you will either need to run fewer programs, or get a new machine.

Final word: This is my last issue before Thanksgiving, so I hope you all have a safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving holiday. Spend it with someone you love, and count your many blessings!