How To: Speed Up Your Computer
posted by: Vlad AkilovIf you are noticing that your computer is running a little sluggish and takes a long time to boot up, these 6 steps will help speed up your computer, and will make it run much smoother. The steps listed below aren’t only for experts, even an absolute beginner can implement these instructions and will see a noticeable difference.
Step 1 - Remove Spyware and Viruses
Viruses and any form of spyware are the biggest cause of slowing down a computer. It is crucial to run spyware and antivirus software weekly. A great program for getting rid of spyware is a program made by Webroot called Spy Sweeper. Another great malware remover is spyware doctor. For antivirus software I recommend AVG Antivirus, which is absolutely free.
Step 2 - Perform a Disk Clean Up
- Click start in the bottom left corner, then click run.
- Type, “cleanmgr.exe” in the text field.
- Press “okay”. This can take a while if you have never done it before.
Step 3 - Remove Unwanted Software
- Click start, then click control panel.
- Click add/remove programs.
- Highlight any old software you do not use and then click “remove”.
Step 4 - Defragment Your Computer
What this does is it physically reorganizing the contents of the disk in order to store the pieces of each file closer together and in order.
- Click start then click run.
- Type, “dfrg.msc” in the text field.
- Click Defrag to start it.
Step 5 - Make Windows Load Faster
- Click Start, then Run.
- Type in ‘msconfig’ and press enter.
- Click on the BOOT.INI tab at the top.
- Over to the right there will be a box labeled Timeout with 30 in it. Change the 30 to a 3.
Step 6 - Speed Up Processing Time
- Go to Control Panel, System.
- Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.
- Select the ‘Adjust for best performance’ radio button, then Apply, and OK.
- The graphics aren’t as flashy, but your computer will run a lot faster.
December 28th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Actually it’s best to remove unwanted software and clean up temp files _before_ performing disk defrag. Otherwise the removed files will create new “holes” in freshly reorganized disk order.
December 28th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Tony: Thanks for the comment, it makes perfect sense, I have changed the steps around to make it like you said.
December 29th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I’ve found that disabling unnecessary services often works a treat too on XP systems.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
December 29th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
I recommend that people clean the junk out of the systray, i.e. stop programs they don’t use from loading on boot. I also tell them it is time to reboot whenever they see a message like, “Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file.”
December 30th, 2006 at 2:40 am
Thanks for the advice!
December 31st, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I like using Spybot and AdAware. Those work fantastic for me, and their easy to use for novices.
January 6th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Yeah… Im only 15 but it might help you guys to know that over time the registry (especially on Winows computers) gets packed with errors there are free programs that detect these errors and fix them online, many say free but they either only just scan or scan and repair only the most basic errors. I after a few mins of searching have fond a completely free registry repair progrm that takes up less than 1Mb of space. The link to this file is
January 10th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Try this lovely bit of kit to clean up the registry: http://www.ccleaner.com/
March 1st, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Try and disable a lot of programs from starting automatically.
1. Go to Start
2. Go to Run
3. Type msconfig and hit enter
4. Click the startup tab.
5. Uncheck the items you don’t want starting up.
Becareful though, some items may be needed for your internet to work properly depending on your ISP. Also if you have Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus programs on the computer.
Also by clicking the Services tab and check-marking the Hide All Microsoft Services, by un-checking some of these items will help speed up the computer. Becareful for the same resons above.
Go here for a comprehensive look at the startup items. This will help in determining whawt you need and don’t need at startup.
http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html
This will dramatically improve startup time and remove any annoying startup errors.
March 5th, 2007 at 8:00 am
As someone said above CCleaner is well worth using. I would forget Windows Defrager and use Auslogic Disk Defrag and also check out Registry Clean Expert
April 4th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Very nice, I appload your enginuity. There are plenty of programs out there that will do this stuff for you, but to do it free, run “msconfig” and uncheck the idems you donk want.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I have to admit that I like to use this software for defragmentation. It’s from Raxco.com and it works well for me.
http://www.raxco.com
April 5th, 2008 at 2:49 am
I recommend this freeware: PC Accelerate