How to make a computer faster

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By mjesales


Computer speed tips

These tips are things that I do on a regular basis to make sure my PC is not being bogged down.

  • defrag your hard drive - just go to my computer, right click on the drive, hit properties - then in the tools section click on defrag. You should do this every so often - depending on your usage. You will need at least 10% free space on your drive - but it goes faster if you have about 25% free or more. If you add and remove files often - you will want to defrag more often
  • Check to see what is running in the background. Remember one Anti-Virus program, one firewall, one anti spyware program. If you are running several of each - you may be seeing a big slow down as each program can scan every file. Also remember that if there is an icon in the lower right hand corner of your computer - by the clock - then a program is running and taking up resources. Stop it if it is not necessary.
  • Check your start menu and reduce the number of programs that start when you start windows unless they are necessary. Launch them after you start the computer.
  • Set your windows page file to a fixed size - I like 1.5x the ram I have. I don't let windows adjust it - but I just set it as a fixed size.
  • Depending on your computer and how much ram you have - it might be time to buy some more. I went from 256MB in my laptop to 764MB and it made all the difference in the world. At the time it cost me about $50 but I think it is even less than that now.

Those are some basic tips to get you started on your road to a faster computer!

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gfking01 profile image

gfking01  says:
2 years ago

Performance can also be affected by low disk space. If that's the case you'll notice that defragging takes forever. Might want to do things in this order if you've never defragged before.

Zap all your temporary internet files & get rid of temporary files, often in the c:\temp folder. You're shooting for 20% free at a minimum. More is better.

Run your defragger once you've deleted all the junk. No sense in defragging stuff you don't need.

I'd then suggest you either schedule a weekly defrag run through the task scheduler or buy a 3rd party defragger like diskkeeper. Going the 3rd party way will eliminate the need to do anything - as it' taken care of as a background service.

The biggest likely zapper of system speed I've found is spyware. When you load programs that offer you the opportunity to allow them to check for updates periodically - select 'no'. That way it won't load any resident update drivers. Those little icons in the lower right are often invisible too, fyi. Make sure you have them set to 'show', so you can see them to delete them, or change their default bahviour to not load on startup.

Ah.. spyware. Massive topic for sure. Best and least expensive approach is to first get rid of it if you can. Lots of software out there to do that - some of it free, like Spybot. Once you're reasonably free of it - reduce the privileges of the ID that you normally run with - so nothing can sneak onboard your computer without your knowing it.

Lastly, that super hi-res picture you've got as a wallpaper might be taking the snap out of your system too. If you've had the PC for years your windows profile might need to be zapped too. They get rather large over time with records of everything you've ever done stored away inside. Start over with a fresh one to rule it out.

Lastly... if you've got your desktop covered with shortcuts - get them organized and reduce their onscreen number if possible.

Otherwise hats off to MJESALES for an excellent reply. Toodles.

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