PC Software Adviser

8 Simple Tips on How to Speed Up Your Computer

Speeding up your computer performance is not as difficult as you might think. In fact, what slows down your computer might be software related rather than hardware inadequacy. This should answer the question for some of you who have high-end PC system but as time goes by becomes slower and slower like a snail. Not only that, this will also raise some hope for those of you who got old computer with slow hardware performance. Don’t be puzzled no more because here I give you some suspects. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be geeks to successfully deal with those problems. Just follow these simple tips and you will find your computer run at its top performance. Once more, don’t trust any articles that claim a registry cleaner alone can make a radical improvement. It is quite possibly an internet scam to hard-sell a product.

1. Shut off unneeded services and control Windows startup programs

You can improve Windows slow startup process by deactivating unnecessary Windows startup entries and services that run automatically. Some of these programs run quietly in the background while some others display their icons in the system tray at the bottom right of your screen. In order to get rid of the resource-wasting programs, you must open "System Configuration Utility" by typing and entering "msconfig" command in the "Run" command that lies on your Windows start menu. Under "Startup" tab, choose which application that you don't need. Be careful though not to choose the one Windows needs.

2. Defrag your hard drive

When you write, create, or copy a new file, Windows will allocate space needed for that file. It will automatically write the new file in the next available empty space. The problem is, if the available space is not enough, Windows will split the new file and allocate the other part to another area of your hard drive. With more and more data is writen this way, your file becomes fragmented because all the file’s parts are not in one location. This way, your computer needs to work harder to find and put together all the pieces. As a result, performance slows over time. Defragmenting your hard drive will rearrange these files, reuniting the separated parts to make your files more quickly accessible. It should noticeably speed up the launch of programs and startup process. To run defragmenter using the built-in module in Windows XP and Vista, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools then Disk Defragmenter.

3. Run antivirus and anti-spyware scan

If you're running Windows, frequently surf online, visit various websites, and download files often, you have high risk to be infected by malicious software (malware). Malware is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to a slow-running Windows. That’s why you need to run a full system scanning at least once a week. Running antivirus scan can clear out resource-hogging infections. You don’t need those expensive antivirus services. Use AVG Anti-Virus or Advanced System Protector free version. Keep also your virus definitions up to date and maintain good browsing habits to minimize the odds of getting infected.

4. Remove junk files

Clean your system by doing some basic housekeeping regularly to preserve it from all the junk that tend to pile up in no time like your browser's cache and temporary files. You can use internal Windows Disk Cleanup. Open your Windows Explorer, choose the folder you want to clean and then right click it, choose Properties, and last choose Disk Cleanup. Similarly, you should consider uninstalling any applications you haven't used in over six months. If you are unmanaged to control your large pile of file database, TuneUp Utilities with its Disk Space Explorer can help you to easily spot which files populate your hard drive more than the other.

5. Update your software and drivers

Keep your system up-to-date by downloading the latest driver for all of your hardware devices. Visit your PC manufacturer's Web site and look in their support section. You should find a link for available drivers and downloads there. If you are a business client, you can utilize services like Dell Enterprise Solutions to keep your system updated and optimized automatically.

6. Use lighter-weight applications

If your system is low-end, don’t push it. You should consider switching to lighter applications. Software like VLC Media Player, Foxit, and Abiword can easily replace Windows Media Player, Adobe Reader, and Microsoft Word, respectively, while requiring only a fraction of the computing power. What makes this even better is that they’re also free. For all antivirus users, protection with low system resource is a must. Ideally, antivirus should active all the time in the background to guard your back. Thus, you should choose a lightweight antivirus product.

7. Scan, clean, and fix registry problems

Windows Registry holds thousands of information of all those settings on your computer. With so many activities we do like installing and uninstalling programs, changing and modifying setting for every application, or updating new drivers, it is very possible there are invalid registry entries and left-out keys from previous software installation. After some times, the problems will be accumulated and soon become potential to cause various irritating computer problems. Thus, you need a registry cleaner that can fix these problems. No need to pay, just use the free CCleaner. Beware though of the so-called free registry cleaner. Most of them only allow you to scan your system without repairing the errors.

8. Turn off visual effects
We sure love the fancy animations and effects like Aero's transparent window borders in Vista. But in turn you have to choose between fashionable display in one hand and smooth PC performance in the other hand. Since those little animations can eat into precious system resources, you have to give them up unless you have a decent graphics card. In Vista, you can turn off the fancy Aero window decorations by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Personalize. Disabling Windows transparencies under Windows Color and Appearance menu is also can help. For even better performance, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Advanced System Settings and then, under the Performance section, select Settings. Here, you can uncheck all the fancy animated effects and windows previews. The same tip also works for Windows XP.

Those are all 8 simple tips to speed up your computer. Just follow my tips and you should notice slightly quicker performance and much faster boot times with no cost at all. All the tools you need are already available inside Windows or available free from the internet. But if you don’t have time digging the technicality of Windows tolls and utilities, software like TuneUp Utilities or System Mechanic can help you making optimization process a one-click job. TuneUp steps even further by introducing an actual and dynamic system monitor that will give different optimization suggestion in different system scenario.