How to make your Computer Speedy?
There are several things you can do to increase the "speed" of your computer.
1) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that
run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup,
and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost
always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any
computer.
2) Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start > Run and type
"msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that
junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need "Adobe
Reader Speed Launch"? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks
useless, but be careful not to disable your anti-virus and important
system components.
3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free anti-virus, Malwarebytes and SUPERAntiSpyware remover. These programs are all free.
Some other ways
1) Upgrade RAM. This is the one killer trick that will make almost any
computer run faster. With an older PC, you will rarely have enough RAM
to run today's memory-hogging operating systems and applications, and
adding a high-capacity stick or two of quality RAM will give you a quick
speed boost. Adding RAM is fairly simple, even for a novice, and you
should be able to do the job in 5 or 10 minutes.
2) Reinstall Windows. If the above tricks haven't helped, it may be time
to wipe the slate clean and start again, reformatting your hard drive,
reinstalling your applications, and restoring your data files from a
backup. You'd be surprised how much more responsive a freshly
reinstalled Windows system can be, as you've wiped out years of temp
files, garbled registry entries, old versions of software programs that
have been upgraded repeatedly, and all sorts of other electronic junk.
Reinstalling is easy if you have the "recovery disk" that came with your
PC, and only a bit more involved if you're using a retail copy of
Windows XP. Just be sure you back up everything you want to take with
you before you pull the trigger!
3) Upgrade your hard drive. This is a more complicated solution, but if you're reinstalling Windows
(per the prior tip) you might consider upgrading to a bigger and
possibly faster hard drive, too. Hard disk storage is a performance
bottleneck on every machine, and magnetic disks degrade over time. Some
performance issues could be caused by a failing hard drive, even, and
upgrading to a new model could really put some zip back in your system.
As a bonus, you can use the original hard drive for backups or
occasional storage, if you put it in an enclosure.
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