Degunking Your PC

Paraglyph Press announces the publication of the fifth major book in its bestselling Degunking series, Degunking Your PC. Bestselling authors Joli Ballew and
Jeff Duntemann co-authored last year’s bestselling and highly-acclaimed
Degunking Windows, which topped the bestseller lists for months and
generated responses from readers such as, “This book really saved my
butt!” In their new book, Degunking Your PC, the authors tackle the
significant problems of PC hardware, peripherals, cables, wires, wireless
networking, security, new electronic gadgets, and backup and recovery.
Anyone bewildered by the jumble of connectivity and configuration problems
created by the latest technology will need this book to help them clean up
their PCs and their peripherals and connected devices.

All PC users have problems with gunk. That’s a given. The plethora of
electronic devices in our homes these days has created a real mess. (Just
try to figure out that rat’s nest of wires under your desk or locate the
missing cord for one of your peripherals!) In Degunking Your PC,
bestselling authors Ballew and Duntemann show how to clean up and
streamline all the electronic devices - to both improve performance and
minimize the chance for problems. This highly readable book covers
desktop PCs and laptops, as well as all critical peripherals and devices
- printers, scanners, digital cameras, keyboards, and monitors. Ballew
and Duntemann show how to get rid of stuff that’s not needed, connect
everything together, remove as much clutter as possible, get well
organized, go wireless whenever possible, create a seamless,
easy-to-manage, and gunk-free home network, improve security, and squeeze
as much performance out of a PC as possible. Even users who have only one
PC can benefit by getting rid of all of the accumulated gunk that can
really slow down their PCs. Some of the unique ways this easy-to-read and
useful book can help include:

• The unique 12-step Degunking process allows users to clean up their PCs
  and peripherals by following a proven method.
• A special section on Degunking With Time Constraints helps users get rid
  of unwanted gunk, even if they have as little as 10 minutes.
• Shows where gunk accumulates on a PC and other devices, and how it can
  slow everything down (even when you don’t realize that you have gunk).
• Features degunking maintenance tasks that users can perform on a regular
  basis to keep their PCs and peripherals in top form.
• Explains how to get rid of old hardware and how and why users need to
  degunk a new PC.
• Shows PC users how to organize their offices, computers, laptops,
  peripherals, and, yes, even a bit of their cluttered lives!
• Presents the best ways to manage backups and archived data and setup
  security.
• Demonstrates how to set up gunk-free networks to link up all the PCs in a
  home or small office.
• Presents the latest techniques for using gunk-free Wi-Fi and improving
  wireless security.
• Shows how to save money and time while upgrading and improving the
  performance of your hardware devices.

Keith Weiskamp, President and Publisher of Paraglyph Press, says, “We’re
delighted that Joli Ballew and Jeff Duntemann have taken their expertise
and written a book to help all PC users benefit from the degunking
process. For anyone who’s fed up with having to use a slow PC, or
frustrated with trying to make all of their devices work together,
Degunking Your PC is the book for them. The way Joli and Jeff expertly
present their 12-step Degunking plan is especially useful and easy to
implement. I think this book will be a ‘must have’ for all home
computer users, as well as anyone who runs a small or large computer
network.”

Joli Ballew, co-author of Degunking Your PC, commented, “The thing that’s
been driving the success of the Degunking books is the unique degunking
mindset that we’ve created. The more you learn about degunking, the more
you’ll realize that it’s more psychology than technology. Rather than
simply thinking about it as a series of steps and tasks, we like to
emphasize that our approach is a uniquely disciplined one that really gets
results, even for people who have limited time.”

Growth of the Degunking Series
Books in the Degunking Series - on topics such as Windows XP, Mac
Panther, spam and viruses, and eBay - have received attention in major
media and rave reviews from readers around the world. Here’s what readers
have said about the books in the Degunking Series:

“[Degunking Windows is] a great new book that explains why computers
lose their vigor over time. It offers easy-to-follow instructions for
cleaning out your hard drive, tweaking programs, eliminating spyware,
sorting e-mail and updating your system.”

-From Parade Magazine, Robert Mortiz in the “Gadget Guide” section

“Do you own a PC or Mac computer and use it regularly? Then, it has gunk.
Gunk is all the unnecessary junk on your computer that can slow down
performance and ultimately cause system malfunction. It’s those fuzzy
photos that never got tossed, e-mail you’ve filed and forgotten, old
programs you never use, hidden programs you don’t want and too many
programs that launch at startup. I found very useful advice from two
books: Degunking Windows by Joli Ballew and Jeff Duntemann, and
Degunking Your Mac by Joli Ballew.”

-Seattle Times

“The cheapest infusion of power to a Windows XP computer can now be had
for a mere $24.99. It’s not a faster processor or more memory but a
well-done book titled Degunking Windows.”

-Miami Herald

“Duntemann is a PC guru who can clean your system out with one hand tied
behind his back.”

-Dingbat Magazine

“Joli Ballew and Jeff Duntemann do an excellent job of helping you to
find the things that are slowing down and cluttering up your system. Keep
the book handy because you will need to go through this cleanup
periodically - maybe a couple times a year.”

-Tony Bradley  netsecurity.about.com)

About the Authors
Joli Ballew is a full-time writer and digital enthusiast who also teaches,
creates Web sites, and consults from her home in Dallas, Texas. Joli has
written over a dozen books, including coauthoring the wildly popular book Degunking Windows with Jeff Duntemann. Joli continues to serve as a
regular Microsoft Expert Zone columnist and blogger, and is an avid
golfer.

Jeff Duntemann is an author, editor, programmer, lecturer, and technology
columnist, with over a dozen books under his belt, including Jeff Duntemann’s Wi-Fi Guide, Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses, and Assembly Language Step-by-Step. Jeff has written for many major
magazines and industry journals including Byte, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, and PC
Week. He is the founding editor of PC Techniques and Visual Developer
Magazine.

Table of Contents for Degunking Your PC
Introduction
1. Why Is My PC All Gunked Up?
2. Degunking Your PC
3. Physically Cleaning Your PC and Peripherals
4. Degunking and Configuring Your PC Work Area
5. Degunking Your Main PC Components
6. Degunking Your Peripherals
7. Untangling Your USB and FireWire Connections
8. Setting Up a Basic Network for Sharing Dial-Up Internet Connections
9. Moving to DSL or Cable Internet
10. Creating Gunk-Free Wired Networks
11. Going Wireless While Staying Gunk-less
12. Degunking Your Backup Strategy
13. Enhancing PC and Media Performance
Appendix: Getting Rid of Unwanted Hardware and Degunk Your New PC