whh Does your PC seem to
be taking longer to boot compared to when you first got it? Does it take ages to do anything? Would you like to know how to speed up my
PC.
Over a period of time Windows gets it’s self into a bit of a mess
internally. That is it generates a lot of junk on the hard disk, put’s
bits of programs and data all over the place and messes up it’s own
configuration information.
You can upgrade the hardware.
Adding more memory or RAM will generally speed things up. You’ll need to
be a bit of a techie though, as there are several different types of
memory (eg DDR, DDR2, SODIMM, etc) and speeds. You may also find that
there’s no free slot on the main board or the PC may already have the
maximum of RAM fitted.
You may also be able to fit a faster processor, but as with memory,
there are literally hundreds to choose from and all sorts of potential
problems.
Here are three things you can easily do yourself.
Firstly, the junk or wasted space is easy to deal with using a built in
tool called Disk Clean Up.
To run Disk Cleanup;
Click on Start
Hover over All Programs
Hover over Accessories
Hover over System Tools
Click on Disk Clean Up
Now put a tick in all the boxes apart from any which are related to
Microsoft Office. You’ll probably notice there are
several hundred megs worth of data stored as Temporary Internet Files,
so deleting just these can free up a significant amount of space. None
of the files you are going to remove are required by Windows and can
safely be deleted.
Click the OK button and then Yes to perform the deletion. The operation
can take several minutes as there may be a significant amount of data to
delete. I've included a short video at the bottom of the page showing
you what to do.
The next thing that really slows the computer down is the way files are
stored on the hard disk. Ideally they would be saved as one continuous
file. But what actually happens is, new files are broken up and stored
in the gaps left by deleted data. So when files are loaded, the disk
jumps all over the place to load the data. Which can significantly slow
loading times. It would be a bit like us trying to read a book with the
pages in the wrong order, and you’d have to keep referring to the index
to find the next page.
Again, there is a built in application called Disk Defragmenter which
will move files around and effectively put them back together so the
disk has less work to do when loading.
To run Disk Defragmenter;
Click on Start
Hover over All Programs
Hover over Accessories
Hover over System Tools
Click on Disk Defragmenter
It’s best to run this application on all the drives listed. But the main
one will have a name and then (C:), this is the disk that Windows
usually runs from and will give the biggest performance improvement.
So, click on the (C:) to highlight the drive, then Defragment. Ideally,
you would see very little red in the disk usage box. The defragmentation
process may take several hours depending on how much data is on the
drive and how badly fragmented the files are. I've included a short
video at the bottom of the page showing you what to do.
I recommend that both the Disk Cleanup and Defragmentation are run at
least once a month.
Thirdly, the Registry.
This is where all the configuration information for Windows, hardware,
users, and installed programs is stored. It is very important, and if
it’s not correct can cause all sorts of problems, such as crashing,
errors and slow system speed. Overtime it gets full of unwanted,
incorrect, or out of date information and needs to be checked and
corrected for the system to function at optimum performance.
There's no application built into Windows that is able to correct any
Registry problems. However, I would recommend using a quality registry
scanner such as
Registry
Easy. This program will check and correct any errors found in your
computers registry. There's even a free registry scanner, which you can
use to check to see if you have any problems before you buy it.
Click
Here for more information.
