One of my biggest pet peeves is a slow PC. After many discussions with friends and family, I am finding that I am not alone. Having a slow pc is very frustrating especially since we all use our PC for more than pleasure in todays day and age.

I do my banking, do trip planning and also bill paying online. The last thing I want to do is sit there for 20 minutes waiting for a page to load! Or worse... waiting for my PC to completely boot up for over 5 minutes (or longer) before I can do anything with it!

Because of this frustration, I found several things that have seriously increased the performance of my PC, and dramatically improved my PC startup and shutdown times.

I hope this article can help you to speed up your PC and eliminate some frustration for you as well!

OK, so you don't want to wade through another BORING article on PC optimization. I don't blame you! But the simple fact is, we all have to deal with it. Even I hate it, but realize it's necessary.

For those who want the "quick fix" without continuing on, here is my "Quick & Easy PC Optimization Guide".

First, disconnect all your cables from your hard drive. Then carry the hard drive outside onto a hard surface. I find sidewalks and paved roads seem to work best.

Next, go into your garage or wherever you keep your tools etc, and locate something like a sledgehammer, axe, anything that can cause serious damage quickly.

I elect to use a baseball bat myself. That way I feel like I am hitting a home run! Note: Plastic whiffle ball bats are the exception.

Swing hard and fast aiming at the front of the hard drive. This will be much safer and avoid "bounce back" that could hurt you.

OK, OK, so I am being funny. My sense of humor sometimes overides my normal thinking. Enough of that... let's move on to REALLY speeding up your PC!

The first thing I always do, is identify which programs I have on my machine that are running in the background when Windows boots. If your PC takes longer than a few minutes to load (I define 'load' as ready to work with it), then there is a VERY good chance you have programs starting in the background that simply don't need to be!

The first thing you need to do is find your version of Window's Run command. In XP, simply click on "Start" and then you should see the "Run" command in the right column at the bottom.

Once you have the Run command open, type "msconfig" and click the OK button. You will now see the "System Configuration Utility" appear. In the next section, we will show you how to use this utility to turn off programs running in the background.

Once opened, make sure you click the "Startup" tab on the far right. What you will see next is a list of all of the programs currently running on your system. Notice I already have quite a few things unchecked like Napster and AOL Software.

Keep in mind that just because you uncheck these programs so they won't run at Windows Startup, that it doesn't mean you are uninstalling them. You can still run these programs at any time by clicking on their desktop icon or other shortcut you have in your program menu.

This is one of the most common questions I get asked. People simply want to know how to tell which ones they can safely uncheck.

Many of the programs are obvious. Here is a small list of items you can safely uncheck:

1. Anything that says AOL can be safely unchecked. This is America Online software.
2. "qttask" can be safely unchecked. This is a utility for the program Quick Time.
3. "realsched" can be safely unchecked. This is associated with the Real Player program.
4. "Microsoft Office" can be safely unchecked. This one is obvious!
5. *Anything related to chat programs such as Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger and the like can be safely unchecked.

*These chat programs are the absolute worst at slowing your PC to a crawl, and disabling these alone will speed up your boot substantially!

*Note: If you are an avid "chat program" user, keep in mind you will need to open them manually once your system has loaded or else you will be offline and no one will be able to talk to you!

At first, post a sticky note on your wall or use some other type of reminder to ensure you open your chat program, once your system has fuly booted.

After I disable the obvious ones, I then go to Google and perform a search query for each remaining one on the list. There are a ton of sites that will inform you what each running process is, and if you can safely disable it.

As an example, you may see "ccApp" on the list. Go to Google and search for "ccApp" and the top two or three sites should have information relating to that process.

In this case it was a process belonging to my anti-virus software Norton, thus I left it checked as I want this to run at Windows boot.

Once you have everything you wish disabled, simply click OK and you will be notified via a Windows alert prompt that your system needs to be restarted.

Once the system reboots, you will get a prompt informing you that you are now in "selective startup". That just means you have selected what items you want to start at Windows boot, this is not an error message.

Just click to checkmark the checkbox that says, "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows start:", and click the OK button.

That's It! You should now experience a HUGE increase in boot up and shutdown times.

I remember when I sat down at my wife's computer because she was complaining about her startup time. I restarted her system, and sat there for 8 minutes before I could use her computer!

I actually got her boot time down to just under 2 minutes! She was very pleased :-)

One of the most common causes of a slow PC is spyware or adware infection. These infections are tiny programs that get placed on your computer without you even knowing about it.

On a side note, Mac users don't have to worry about Spyware or viruses like PC users do. I will cover this in a later article so stay tuned :-)

These programs are very dangerous because not only do they monitor your internet activity and serve you pop-up ads based on your browsing activity, but they can also collect PERSONAL information from you such as usernames and passwords by recording your keystrokes.

The problem is, these programs usually go undetected in the System Configuration Utility and need to be removed by special software. Some even mask themselves by having a similar process name as a required component. I am mentioneing these things because I feel it is very important that you realize how critical removing these programs is.

The first step is to decide which Spyware remover is right for you. There is a free one called Spybot Search & Destroy that isn't too bad. It is completely free and I have provided a tutorial video on the right that shows you how to use it to scan your system.

If you don't mind paying, I recommend XoftSpySE. You can scan your system for spyware for free first, and then they have a small license fee for removal, which is around $29. It's the one I use and prefer.

But like I mentioned, the best part is that they offer a free scan in advance so you'll know if you even need it before you register it.

Another option is to have my professional team check out your computer or laptop and have us remove the Spyware & Malware for you. Simply contact me and we'll discuss my team stopping by and picking up your machine at a convenient time.

Don't worry about the safety of your computer. My team is very professional and will treat your PC like they do their own.

The video on the right shows my team hard at work on several client's computers. Notice the professional manner in which they conduct themselves. I am so proud of them!

OK, OK... more humor... enough of that! Let's move on to getting your computer "speed up" process completed.

Another thing I like to do is get rid of the garbage on my computer. When I say "garbage" I am talking about temporary files (including internet), unused files, old log files and more. The best part is, Windows has made this easy by instilling their "Disk Cleanup" utility.

Becasue of this utility, you no longer need to fish around and delete this stuff manually. In just a few clicks, you can rid your system of this unwanted clutter effortlessly!

The Windows "Disk Cleanup" utility is super easy to use! All you have to do is click:

Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup

After you select Disk Cleanup it will open and ask you which drive you want to cleanup. Typically, this will be drive C:

Once you select your drive click "OK" and the utility will scan your system to calculate how much junk it can remove, and space it can save.

Once it completes it's in itial scan, it will display the items it can remove, as well as an option to compress old files.

All of these options are safe and I recommend you do so.

Once you have everything you want checked, click the "OK" button and the Disk Cleanup utility will begin it's process.

NOTE: Notice my drive is letter I:

That's because I have my hard drive partitioned, and I elected to run the utility on my secondary drive. Yes! You can run this on any drive on your PC.

Once you click "OK" the cleanup utility goes to work deleting your junk files, and compressing the old. Sometimes this can take a while, but don't worry! Just sit back and relax and watch the garbage get removed :-)

Once it's complete there is no need to reboot. Your computer is now free of unwanted clutter, violla!

As I'm sure you noticed, there is also a, "More Options" tab in the Windows Disk Cleanup utility. This provides you with a few more things you can do to clean up space.

1) Windows Components: The utility will display components you may not have used recently. I recommend you steer away from this option. Just because you haven't used them doesn't mean you never will!

2) Installed Programs: This just gets you to the Add/Remove Programs function plain and simple. Feel free to go through installed programs and remove ones you know you'll never use.

3) System Restore: Steer away from this! It will remove restore points and only keep your most recent. I am always a big fan of keeping a ton of different restore points "just in case".

I have included some excellent resources below that explain this utility in a bit more detail.

This is a critical step to speed up your slow PC, especially if you have recently removed malicious spyware or adware.

Over time the Windows registry gets bogged down due to leftover debris from spyware, shared DLL files, invalid registry entries, invalid shortcuts and more.

To access the Windows Registry Editor, pull up the Run command like I showed you above, and type "regedit". Then click the OK button.

*WARNING: Although it is possible to manually edit your system registry (to remove excess code bloat), I HIGHLY do NOT recommend you attempt to do this unless you are extremely experienced with all aspects of it.

You could seriously corrupt your Window's operating system forcing you to re-install everything!

But what other options are there you may ask? Let's dive right in to some great solutions that will handle this process safely, and efficiently!

With this in mind, there are some tools that can do the task automatically. One particular free program is CCleaner.

CCleaner is a great program you can download free to optimize your registry, and clean up all of the junk that can slow down your system. I actually use CCleaner on my laptop, even though I prefer RegCure on my desktop where I do most of my work, and store most of my files.

I have put together a video that shows you how to use CCleaner to optimize your system. CCleaner is fairly easy to use, but not quite as easy as my recommended solution, RegCure.

RegCure's free scan let's you see if you have any registry errors via a free registry scan. If you do, RegCure will fix a few problems for free however they do have a license fee in order to fix all of the problems (around $29 I believe) but it is highly worth it.

RegCure's Advanced Features

RegCure also boasts a couple of advanced features that I absolutely love! RegCure backs up your entire registry prior to fixing your problems in case you want to revert back.

RegCure also has a feature allowing you to handle Window's startup programs without using the "System Configuration Utility" as I mentioned above.

Registry Editing Is Too Risky To Attempt Manually

When it comes to these tools, the point is that editing your registry manually is not only risky, but time consuming. Not only that, but I can guarantee you wouldn't correct every issue because the registry is extremely complex.

Having an error free registry is also essential to your system's health. Imagine your car without ever having an oil and filter change or professional tune-up. It really amazes me how some people can ignore their their system's health altogether (and yes I was one as well!) and think they are immune to PC crashes, which essentially is what will happen over time.

I actually use RegCure daily and I can't believe how much it has helped my PC's overall health and performance.

Just taking these few steps above should speed up your PC 100 fold! One thing to keep in mind that when installing new programs (especially from the internet), is they tend to offer other things like toolbars etc.

Make sure you uncheck the box for any program or utility you do not wish to be installed! This is especially true when downloading free games from gaming sites.

They offer the games free because they will make money when you install a "Free" toolbar and often try to sneak it past you.

Closing Thoughts

I really do hope this article helps you to avoid frustration when it comes to your PC. Using the steps above will definately make you fall in love your PC all over again!

Please feel free to visit our site for other valuable PC tips and free software downloads too :-)