Every modern operating system needs to run certain processes constantly, regardless of what other programs and operations are currently active and regardless of what the user may be doing. These background processes may be used to detect new hardware, monitor the network for incoming data, or a variety of other things that require the operating system to pay constant attention to its surroundings.

In Windows, these background processes are called Services and they will be the topic of this edition of PCSTATS always handy, never quite printable (we're working on it!), popular Beginner's Guides. We're going to look at what the Windows Services are and do, why they are necessary, which ones should be running on your system and which ones you can do without.

Newest Update! PCSTATS covers all the TechTips you need to push a Windows XP PC from sluggish to quick. This Guide deals with quicker boot times, making your current hardware work faster, and 99 other Tips from PCSTATS that will help you make your computer run better, quicker, and more efficiently!

PCSTATS will also cover the basics of overclocking the processor, memory and video card, so as not to miss out on this important area of extra performance potential. Please pay special attention to our 'Tweak Insurance' tips at the beginning of this guide to help you prepare your system against any potential mishaps.

The Blue Screen of Death, or more properly the 'Windows stop message' occurs when Windows detects a problem or error from which it cannot recover. The operating system halts and diagnostic information is displayed on a blue screen. In newer versions of the operating system, the contents of the PC's memory are dumped to a file for later analysis.

In this article PCSTATS.com will walk you through the BSOD in many of its most familiar incarnations. We will not be exploring and cataloguing what each BSOD means, but rather providing a set of tools for troubleshooting that you can use to get around any Blue Screen Of Death, or constant crash issue. Just another step in PCSTATS' never-ending quest to save your hard earned cash from going to the computer repair shop.

If you've been using computers for a decent amount of time there is a good chance someone has told you that data stored on a hard drive is not exactly safe. I'm here to assure you that this is indeed true.

Never mind the fact that unlike tapes or CDs or other methods of storage, hard drives are mechanical, active devices and are thus subject to comparatively rapid breakdown.

No, the real threat to hard drives are the people that use them, by which I mean you and me. This Guide also deals with recovering deleted formatted information. 

For the PC business, Acer is now primarily focusing on improving its existing competitiveness and cooling technologies. The company earlier terminated its money-losing handset and tablet product lines, and is now eyeing for a business transformation and seeking growth momentum for its emerging businesses.

Commenting on the coronavirus outbreak, Chen pointed out that the outbreak's impact on the IT supply chain is weakening, but Acer will continue monitoring closely the supply chain's status and will push to land more orders in a bid to satisfy deferred demand after the outbreak is contained."