Learn how to increase your Computer Speed.

A slow and lazy computer is no less than an irritating spot to work in. Most of you may have spent hundreds of dollars in the maintenance and optimization of your Desktop computers but in the end hopelessness is what you get. Many softwares have been created to help you boost your computer speed but they too often fail to solve this problem. Today I will share with you some tips and tricks [TNT] that will accelerate your computer's performance to 100%. These are not just ordinary tips and tricks that you find in internet but these are the practical ways and most effective ways of boosting up your computer speed. These TNT have made me love my computer and work on it for hours with comfort and fun. I am now in love with my Pentium-3 computer, which now works much faster than Pentium-4  :D

So Lets learn step by step on how to plant this TNT :) ........I mean lets learn some Tips N Tricks to boost up you Computer speed.

(1) Adjust Your Computer For best Performance.

What do you prefer most, appearance or performance? If I heard you say performance then do the following:

Go to

1. Start Menu
2. Right click my computer
3. Click properties
4. A window will open, click the "advanced" tab as shown below

Under Performance click settings, as shown above.

Another window will open as shown below,

Choose "Adjust for best Performance" and the entire look & performance of your computer will change to a light and a more effective one respectively. All the above/below pictures are taken in classic win XP theme. I hope you might have observed a great increase in your PC speed.

(2) Reduce The Number of Your Start Up Items In Your Taskbar.

When you Start your windows XP, many unnecessary programs run in the background and capture a huge amount of your computers memory and processing speed. To turn off these unnecessary Start up items do the following:
Go to

1. Start Menu
2. Click on Run
3. A window will open up , write msconfig in it, as shown below,
   

A new window will open as shown below,

There are many options as you can see above, we will concentrate on "Load system services" and "Load Startup Items" in detail.

Choose the option "Selective Startup"

In the Square White boxes, check all except "Process Win.INI File"

Now click the "Services tab" above and a screen will open as shown below,

Uncheck the two boxes entitled "Security Center" & "Automatic Updates" and click Apply.

Security Center and Automatic Updates keeps your system up to date with latest Microsoft system files, but unfortunately these two services help little and spoil a lot when it comes to your computer speed. Each day these services will download dozens of Updates into your computer, which takes huge amount of your system memory. If you don't use these services no harm will happen to your system instead your system [computer] will pray for you from the bottom of its Metallic Heart :D

After clicking apply, click "Startup" tab as shown below,

Uncheck all those services that you don't want to open automatically when you Start Your Computer. In my case I have unchecked all except Anti-Poisoner, without which  I will not be able to "Browse" the internet. If you don't know what to do, simply uncheck all boxes.
Click apply, a window will open, asking you to restart your computer for changes to take effect--->>> Click Ok. After restart you will observe that your System loaded in seconds with only two Startup items as shown below,

Now if you still feel that "Man that was tough", then Download Msconfig Cleanup Utility that will do everything  as I said above just with a click of a mouse. It will remove all unwanted startup programs with great ease. Good choice for unexperienced users :D. 

To download Msconfig Cleanup utility for free  Click here 

(3) Cleanup Your Disks Daily

Each time you visit a website your browser stores some files e.g: Images from that website onto you Drive C [Your System Drive], so that next time  you visit that website the browser will open it quickly. To delete all such temporary internet files stored onto your Drive C, we will use a software called "Disk Cleanup". This software is already installed on every WinXP so you don't need to download it. Do the following,

Go to,

1. Start Menu
2. Click All Programs
3. Click Accessories
4. Click System Tools
5. Finally Click Disk Cleanup

A window will open as shown below,

Select Drive C and click OK, another window will open,

Just see how much useless files are stored onto your system!!! The files stored in my PC are all "0 KB" in size as you can see above because I cleanup my disk every day. Just see yours, I am sure if you don't knew about Disk clean up before your stored files size may be mounting 1000 KBs!!!

Simply click OK and all unwanted files will be deleted. Do this Once a week for all other drives. [Drive D, Drive E....bla bla bla], but do it daily for drive C. This will boost up your PC speed tremendously!

(4) Always use "Add or Remove Programs" utility to delete unwanted programs. 

When ever you uninstall/delete a program always use the "add or remove" utility. This utility will remove/delete every bit of the program without leaving any traces behind. Confused???? Let me explain. When you delete a program just by right clicking on it and selecting delete Or by clicking on the  program and then pressing "Shift + Del" key, you only delete 95% of the program from your hard disk, the remaining 5% dwell in your hard disk, occupying a precious space, thus leading to slow computer speed. To delete your unwanted programs the right way, do the following:

Go to 

1. Start Menu
2. Click Control Panel
3. A window will open, there you will find the " Add or remove Program" icon, double click the icon

A new window will open as shown below

To delete a program, just click the program and then click "Remove". This way you will keep your computer clean and active.

(5) Defragment your Drives Once a week.

The files on your Hard disk due to regular use often break down or become fragmented. This can cause your system to run more slowly and encounter several processing problems. For instance, a computer program must access various files on your hard drive every time you try to run it. If those files are spread out on your hard drive instead of gathered and organized neatly, your computer will have to work extra hard and take extra time to access the information it needs. The solution to this problem is Defragmenting.

Defragmenting, also referred to as "defragging," reorganizes your hard drive by putting pieces of related data back together so that files are organized in a contiguous fashion. As a result, your computer system can access files more efficiently. By efficiently organizing your files and folders, defragmenting will leave your free space in one big chunk. This will allow your new files to be saved in an orderly fashion, thereby reducing the likelihood of future defragmentation.

All operating systems have a defragmenting tool called Disk Defragmenter which organizes your files and improves your computer speed. To run Disk Fragment do the following:

Go to 

1. Start Menu
2. Click All programs
3. Click Accessories
4. Click System Tools
5. Finally Click "Disk Fragmenter"

A utility will open as shown below

The Analyze key will tell you whether or not your selected drive needs defragmenting or not.

Always analyze your drive before defragmenting it, because defragmenting a drive can take hours depending on your disk size. 

Defragment your drives once every week. Do this and see the difference in your PC performance.

(6) Always cleanup your Windows Registry.

The Windows Registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system you use. Every software or program that you install is registered in this directory. A Windows Registry is just like a map for an operating system. When ever you open a program ,your computer contacts the Windows Registry, which provides it with all the information about that program. A clear and clean map is always easily understood but an unorganized  map will always be confusing. Same is the case with Windows Registry, keeping it clean will allow your computer to better communicate with the Registry and work effectively. All your programs will open with a fraction of second without any delays................ Only........ if your registry is Clean. 

So how do we cleanup the Registry? 

The answer is simple Download "Registry Mechanic" software. This is the best software for cleaning your registry. Its ranked first amongst all other Registry Cleaning Softwares. It doesn't only cleans your registry but scans it daily. It also has the Disk Fragment utility, we discussed earlier. In short it is multi-functional. Lets look at some of its features,

1. It scans your registry daily.
   
2. It compacts and optimizes your registry [keeps it clean]
3. It also optimizes your system [Improves your system performance]

Lets see its third feature ,

You can see two buttons here, the first will improve your system performance and the second will defragment your drives. You can also see five menu tabs at the top. If you click on the last tab " system information" you will get all information about your PC, check mine,

You can see my CPU speed is 863 MHz, which means its Pentium-3 but I bet it runs faster than Pentium-4 which has a CPU speed of 2400 MHz !!

You can also see that I am using a 382MB RAM, which is highly responsible for your system speed. Use as high RAM as possible, using a RAM of 1000MB would make your computer a Super Computer I promise!

Now lets talk about downloading "Registry Mechanic". The cost of latest version of Registry Mechanic is USD $29.95 and comes with a 12 month subscription. Oh! my God isn't that expensive. What if I tell you to get it for free with 12 months validity ?????? :-" Hahaha :D I know you are curious to know how to get it for free. Don't worry its really simple. To promote their product, PC Tools [Producer of Registry Mechanic] is giving a one year license key for free. To get the software and the license key, just Click here . 

You will be provided with a simple form, just fill it and click submit. The license code will be emailed to you shortly.

Now you have to download the correct version of Registry Mechanic because this license is valid only for version 7.0 of Registry Mechanic. To download this version Click here 

After downloading and installing it, insert the License key emailed to you, and then Enjoy!


(7) Improving loading speed of "My computer"


When you click on my computer it often takes 4-5 seconds to open, to reduce this delay time to zero, do the following:
Click my computer to open it. Once "my computer window" opens, click on "Tools" Tab then click on "Folder Options" as shown below,

 Another window will open, click on "View" tab as shown below,

Now under Files and Folders uncheck the box saying "Automatically search for network folders and printers". Click Apply and Ok. By doing this your computer will not search for network folders and printers anymore. 

Now when you click my computer the window will open up in a fraction of a second. Go test it! :D

(8) Alternative to Registry Mechanic, Msconfig Utility and Add or Remove Program 

Hmm let me now tell you the best tip ever! If you found any of the above manual steps difficult to understand or tough to apply and wish to know a short-cut, then "CCleaner" comes to your rescue.
This is what CCleaner's manufacturer says, 


"CCleaner is a freeware PC optimization tool.
It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner!
CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space.
The best part is that it's Small, Fast and Free!"



Lets see some of its screenshots,

You can see above that it includes a Registry cleaner, Startup utility to adjust your startup items and a "add or remove" utility. What else do you need? Go download it right now.


Click here to download CCleaner 

(9) Install a good Anti-virus

Since we use net frequently, the chances that our computer gets infected [is attacked by malicious softwares] is 100%. These spywares and malwares can cause a great deal of loss to your data and computer speed. To keep your computer protected from all Viruses I would suggest that you must install Kaspersky anti-virus, which is the world No#1 anti virus. This anti virus is not free and a registered version will cost you USD $90. You can get it from www.Kaspersky.com or from a nearer CD shop.

Important! Installing a good anti-virus will surely protect your system from Viruses but sometimes it really slows down your PC. Install Kaspersky only if your computer starts responding too slowly or doing unusual things like:

1.Your computer restarts/shutdowns by itself,
2.Your friends receive messages from you on Messengers like Msn or Yahoo, though you didn't send them any message,
3. You often receive the "Don't send error" in winxp,
4. Your CD ROM opens/closes by itself, bla bla bla. 

If you are really suffering through all these problems then do install Kaspersky and scan all your drives for viruses once a week. Personally I don't use any anti-virus. I haven't reinstalled Winxp for the last 9 months and my computer is still working perfectly alright!!! Just because I follow the above Seven steps of boosting my PC  speed regularly.

Thats All!

I hope these steps will help you in solving your problems related to slow computer speed.

Please feel free to ask me anything related to this post. Remember to bookmark my page and subscribe to TECfun.

Regards,

MO|-|D____