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How To Speed Up A Slow Computer

Is your computer running slow? Frustrating, isn’t it? There are several things you can do to speed up you windows PC. The hardware suggestions in this article apply to most computers. However, since some flavor of Microsoft windows is running on over 90% of all PCs, the operating system suggestions are for windows and specifically windows XP. Most of suggestions will also apply to windows NT/2000/2003/vista. Each version of windows has had a slightly different graphical user interface. So the location of a tool may be different or, in a very small number of cases, the tool might not exist in a specific version of windows.

Slow Hard Drive, CD and DVD Drives

Clean the hard drive – Windows has a built in utility to clean up temporary files, residues left behind when uninstalling an application, etc. To clean your hard drive, select My Computer then right click on the hard drive. Select Properties. Then click on the Clean Up button. Windows will scan your hard drive for files you can delete. When it is finishes the scan, click OK and then Yes.

Defrag the hard Drive – a computer stores files wherever there is space. What that means is that it may break files up and store them in non-contiguous (not next to each other) locations. It takes a lot longer to find all the parts of a file if it is scattered around the hard drive. Defragging will move the files into adjacent memory locations wherever possible.

To defrag, turn the screen save off by right clicking anywhere on the desktop, select Properties then click on the Screen Saver tab and select None. Next, select My Computer then right click on the hard drive. Select Properties then click on Tools. Select Defragment Now. This can take a long time depending on the size of the hard disk. You might as well go do something else because you CANNOT use the computer while it is defragging.

WARNING: DO NOT TURN THE MACHINE OFF UNTIL DEFRAGGING IS COMPLETE OR IT MAY DAMAGE THE HARD DRIVE.

Enable DMA – Go to Control Panel -> System, then select the Hardware tab. Click on Device Manager. Open IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers as shown below.

Select each individual drive one at a time, right click and open the properties dialog box. Select the Advanced tab and make sure the transfer mode is set to DMA if available as shown below. Close Device Manager and reboot your computer.

Registry

The registry is where windows stall all configuration information for the operating system, every application, every piece of hardware and every user allowed to log into the computer. When you uninstall a program, it may leave unnecessary junk in the registry. Use a good registry cleaning application to clean the registry and eliminate unnecessary entries.

Virus, Spyware and other Malware

Viruses, spyware and malware can wreck havoc on your computer. When they don’t completely trash the machine, they definitely slow it down. Use a good virus and spyware program to do a complete scan to make sure the system is not infected.

File System

Auto Search – Windows automatically searches for network folders and printers every time you open a folder or run windows explorer. Unless you store your files on a company server or print on a network printer, you can turn this automatic search off. Go to My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options. Select the View tab and uncheck Automatically search for network folders and printers. Then click OK. The next time you reboot, browsing your folders should be a little faster.

Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/ Vista allow you to use two different file systems FAT32 and NTFS. NTFS is much faster and more efficient than FAT 32 and has some really nice security feature such as encrypting files. To see which one you are using, go to My Computer, right click on your hard drive, select Properties. As you can see below where it lists the File System, I am running NTFS.

If you are running FAT 32, you can convert to NTFS using the following steps:

Select Start -> Run then type cmd in the dialog box. A black window like the one shown below will open. Type convert c: /fs:ntfs (don’t forget to leave a space between the colon and the slash.).

You should get a message saying that the conversion will take place the next you restart your computer. Select Start -> Turn Off Computer -> Restart. Windows will convert the drive and reboot the machine twice.

Memory

You can never have too much memory in your computer. By memory I am talking about Random Access Memory (RAM). This is where the operating system loads itself and every application you open. When the system runs out of RAM it uses Virtual Memory, which is space on the hard drive allocated for unloading data from RAM to free up space for the new program. As you switch between windows, the data will be swapped into and out of RAM as needed. Virtual Memory is also called a swap file.

Reducing the need to swap data into and out of virtual memory will speed up the PC quite a bit. Install as much memory as either the machine can use or you can afford to buy. Just be sure to buy memory chips that are compatible with you motherboard. If you are a gamer, do a lot of graphic stuff or a lot of number crunching, I recommend at least 2 GB or more.

Terminate and Stay Resident Programs

Terminate and Stray Resident (TSR) programs are applications that load into memory when the system starts up. Select Start -> Run. Then type msconfig into the dialog box. The window shown below will open. Examine the items on the Startup and Services tab. Uncheck any that you don’t use very often. Click OK to exit. Then reboot the computer. If you don’t know what a file or what a service does, don’t uncheck it.

Summary

If you performed all of these steps you should see a noticeable improvement in the performance of your PC.