How to Make Your Computer Run Faster

We use computers every day for various tasks: listening to music, typing up our English essays, or formatting that report to hand to your boss. Whatever you use computers for, it is helpful to have a fast running computer in tip-top shape. Here are some tips to help you keep your system at peak performance.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A computer running Windows
• An Internet Connection
• At least 50MB of free hard drive space

1. Clean up your desktop icons. Having too many icons on your desktop slows down your computer's operational speed. Consider cleaning them up to keep only what you need on your desktop.
2. Remove any unnecessary start-up applications. Download CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) and remove any unnessecary start-up entries. These are programs that start when you turn on your computer, and it takes time for them to load. Programs such as limewire, MSN, and quicktime helper are common culprits.
3. Run a virus-scan. If you do not have any virus protection software, run a free scan online using TrendMicro Housecall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/).
4. Uninstall any programs you don't use in Control Panel. Trial software and other junk clogs up your computer and makes it run slowly.
5. Do a registry scan and repair. Using CCleaner or any other registry cleaner of your choice, clean and repair the Windows registry to make your computer run smoother.
6. Conduct a scan for spyware on your computer that may be slowing down it's operation. A great tool to use is Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html).
7. Conduct an ad-ware scan. Ad-ware is similar to spyware and is just as bad. A great tool for this job is Lavasoft Ad-Aware (http://lavasoft.com/).
8. Upgrade your computer's hardware. The most common upgrade is an upgrade in RAM, but you can also upgrade your graphics card or processor to make your computer run faster.
9. Make sure all your hardware drivers are up to date. Do this by visiting the manufacturer's websites to download the latest versions.
10. Turn off unnecessary visual effects such as Vista's Aero effect, all of which slow down your system. Skinning programs such as WindowsBlinds also slow down your system.
11. If all else fails, re-format your computer and install windows again to start off will a clean system with no junk.
12. Defragment your hard-drives. When your hard drive is reading your files, a little head drops onto to a spinning disk to read the information to load a file. If the file is split up between multiple parts of the hard drive, it takes longer to open each file. Thus, defragmenting frequently will make every-day activity quicker on your computer

Tips & Warnings

• Close programs from your task bar and the clock tray when you aren't using them.
• Your system is like a pie, and every program is like someone eating the pie. If you have too many programs open, there is not enough pie. You can make your pie bigger by buying new hardware.
• Reboot your system frequently to clean out any left-over junk.
• Clear your internet cache frequently.
• Follow this advice at your own risk
• Do not open up your computer if you do not know what you are doing
• If you have a serious virus, it's best to leave it up to a professional.