June 4, 2008
Some Things Don’t Need Fixing But If You Must…
Pacing through StumbleUpon sites favorited by my friends, I came across a blog post how to tweak your Firefox browser for speed. Great! I’ve done similar tweaks like that in the past. That’s a good thing no?
Weeellll… speed is great. We all like our machines to be leaner, faster, more efficient and they should. But here’s my thinking. It’s OK to tweak your computer settings, your browser settings totally! I do it regularly. But only tweak if it you truly need to and if you know what you’re doing. Those are the two rules I abide to.
If the computer is running just fine, you don’t notice any lag and everything is calm. Don’t fix something that doesn’t need fixing. But what if you like to rock the boat? Live on the edge. That’s OK too. Just make sure you know what you’re in for.
The blog post in question simply listed the hows without the why. To me that is a big, big hole. Someone’s gonna step into it and crash. Sure enough, one commenter did crash. It broke some other feature on his browser 
Our computers are as individual as we are. You and I could purchase the same brand of computer, same model, same date and time. Months down the line, my computer is going to look and behave differently than yours. So, a tweak on your computer could behave nicely but totally break on mine.
On top of that, blindly tweaking is just asking for disaster. Worse, a disaster you won’t know how to fix. Now, I’m not saying you should be a super geek before you tweak. Only that you go in with your eyes open. At the very least…
- Research what the tweak is supposed to do
- What are the down sides
- What are the known issues other people have after tweaking
- If it doesn’t work, how to do you reverse it?
- Finally, always be prepared for the worst. Backup beforehand or have a backup at hand.
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Oh, when it comes to software and other technology…I’m all for if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I tread very carefully because like you said, when I don’t, I end up messing things up BIG TIME!
Lynette,
Great advice. I’m with Alice. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I’ll tweak Word or even the occasional registry setting (after making a backup) and I’ve been known to make a few Windows tweaks as well, with similar precautions.
But I’m not buying into the trend of everything must be faster, bigger, etc. You could also characterize faster and bigger as “frenetic and bloated.”
Sure I want my browser to load faster, but I’ve found it’s usually not FF or IE at all. It’s the pipelines coming into the browsers where the bottlenecks often occur.
Just some random thoughts on a good post. Well done, Lynette!
Deb Gallardo
I’ve tuned so many hours my computer so I could save time. If I sum up time that I’ve used for tuning and what I’ve saved. I think I’ve used more for tuning.
So what I learned: Don’t tune too much.
@inspiroi
I am not the one who care these in my house. My last computer has been used for 4 years without any major tuning. When it is about time, my husband will step in and do something, without me saying anything.
It gets me through my day just dandy. Why risk a weeks downtime because you’re curious.
My father still runs windows ME without a single complaint LOL
That’s funny, Dennis. I just realized that I’m still using Office 2000. Thought about upgrading, but then figured…why bother?
Hey all, @inspiroi you made me laugh. That’s true. Even if you know what you’re doing you’ll often spend waaaay more time on it than 2 minutes.
@Deb: I know! I sometimes really like those old and tiny software that don’t eat up half of my hard drive.
@Grace: I hear you. It’s nice when you have someone like that. In my household I’m the computer fixer unless it has to do with hardware then it’s hub’s job. But I’ve heard the opposite happen too. Sometimes my friends have their computer set up just like they want and then hubs comes in to shake it all up. They end up wasting time to get it back like before.
@Dennis: The down time can be just brutal. Drives me nuts my computers are down. Beserk. Crazy. Out of my mind.
@Alice: As much as I tell you about upgrading, when it comes to Office or Windows for that matter I’m very, very reluctant to upgrade those.
@Lynette - LOL I know what you mean, but I think some may look at “downtime” a little differently.
To me, downtime is closer to hitting the power button and nothing happens. From the conversation here though, it seems you consider downtime as having to wait an extra 3 seconds for something to boot.
If that’s the case, may I suggest tweaking yourself a vacation first?
I agree with both of you on upgrading programs/windows. With programs like that, unless it is something major (new can’t live without features, etc.) or I can get it free hehe, I leave it alone.
Windows - UGH. I was quite content with my trusty XP, until I bought my nifty new laptop with Vita Home Premium.
After attempting a re-do with XP and coming up with a mess, i did a little research on it and discovered what a real PITA it is to switch.
Luckily I never encountered nearly the amount of issues others did with Vista.