Washington  - Thinking about getting a new solid state disk (SSD) for your PC or notebook? SSDs give most PCs a significant performance boost, but without defragmenting the drives. SSDs store files differently than traditional hard drives, so defragmentation is unnecessary. In addition, defragging an SSD may actually reduce its life expectancy because writing and re-writing files to an SSD causes wear and tear.

Washington (dpa) - How much space on your hard drive does a file occupy? To find out, right-click the file, and select Properties from the pop-up menu or simply select the file and press Alt-Enter. In either case, the file's Properties dialogue box appears, indicating, among other things, how large the file is and how much space the file occupies on your hard drive.

Washington (dpa) - When have you last cleaned your computer speakers? While computer speakers generally do not need much maintenance, they do get dusty and that is unsightly. Take care when wiping off that dust, though. If you use a damp cloth, make sure it's very lightly dampened. You don't want water to get inside the grill and onto the speakers. Water will damage your computer speakers far more quickly than dust will.

Washington (dpa) - If your Windows system suddenly starts acting flaky, don't forget System Restore. The Windows System Restore utility automatically takes snapshots of your critical system files every time you make a significant change to your computer, such as when installing a program. If a poorly written program ruins the stability of your system, call up System Restore and revert to a system state that predates the misbehaving program.

Washington (dpa) - Microsoft's Windows 7, the successor to Vista, is receiving favourable reviews from beta testers. Microsoft has made the Windows 7 beta available for free to the public - at least until 2.5 million people download it. You can get your copy at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/. (dpa)