There are many ways to help increase the speed of your computer without buying new hardware. With minimal computer skills, you can follow the checklist below and reduce your boot time, speed up application loading, and generally make your PC more snappy.
1. Uninstall old software.
2. Defragment your harddrive.
3. Change your Virtual Memory Settings.
4. Remove spyware and malware.
5. Remove startup programs you no longer use.
Once you have completed one or more of these steps, it is a good idea to restart your computer. For details on how to perform these steps, see the sections below. Be sure you consult your computer manuals or online help before performing any of these tasks if you do not know what you are doing.
UNINSTALL OLD SOFTWARE (Intermediate)
+ In the Control Panel, click "Add/Remove Programs"
+ Remove any programs you no longer use.
DEFRAGMENT YOUR HARDDRIVE (Beginner-Intermediate)
+ Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press "r". This will bring up the Run dialog.
+ Type "defrag" into the textbox and press "Enter". The Defrag program will pop up.
+ Follow the steps to defragment EVERY drive on your system.
CHANGE YOUR VIRTUAL MEMORY SETTINGS (Advanced)
Virtual memory is used when your computer runs out of physical memory. Depending on how much RAM you have, this can happen quickly or not at all. Once the programs running on your computer take up all the RAM, Windows will begin accessing the hard drive to store program data. Since the hard drive is MUCH slower than physical RAM, we want to optimize the virtual memory usage in a few ways.
1. If you have another hard drive (not your main c: drive), tell Windows to use that drive for virtual memory instead of your main c: drive.
2. Make your minimum virtual memory size AND maximum virtual memory size the SAME. This will prevent the hard drive from spending time resizing it.
3. Make your virtual memory size 2.5 times the amount of RAM you have. For example, if you have 1GB RAM, make your virtual memory min and max 2.5GB.
You can do all of this through the Windows "System Properties" dialog.
+ First, hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press the "Pause/Break" key. This will pop up the System Properties dialog.
+ Next, go to the "Advanced" tab, and click "Settings" under the Performance group. This will pop up the Performance Options dialog.
+ Then, click on the "Advanced tab in the Performance Options dialog, and click "Change..." under the Virtual memory group. All of the settings you need to tweak based on 1-3 above are in this dialog.
REMOVE SPYWARE AND MALWARE (Beginner-Intermediate)
This is as simple as downloading a spyware/malware remover from the Internet. Most of these programs are free. Do an Internet search for "spyware remover" to find some free programs that will get the job done, install and run it. I've had good luck with Ad-Aware by Lavasoft and Microsoft Windows Defender.
REMOVE STARTUP PROGRAMS YOU NO LONGER USE (Beginner-Advanced)
Using either the basic or advanced steps listed below, you can ensure the program doesn't start up by removing it completely from your system. Follow the steps under UNINSTALL OLD SOFTWARE listed above.
(Beginner)
+ Look in your programs folder by clicking "Start" then "Programs".
+ Inside, there should be a folder called "Startup".
+ Delete any files you no longer use by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Delete".
(Advanced)
+ Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press "r". This should bring up the "Run" dialog.
+ Type "msconfig" in the box and press "Enter".
+ Under the "Startup" tab, unselect any programs you don't wish to start when you reboot your computer.
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