4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Performance
Published: January 31, 2005
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Keep in Touch and Stay Productive—At Work, At Home, and On the Go!
Learn how you can stay connected and productive at home, at work, and on the road. The book includes an additional CD with software, eBooks, and other resources.
Article adapted from "Laptops and Tablet PCs with Microsoft Windows XP Step by Step: Keep in Touch and Stay Productive--At Work, At Home, and On the Go!" by Andrew Fuller and Ravipal Soin.
There are a few guidelines that you can follow to maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly.
This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.
On This Page
Free Up Disk Space
Speed Up Access to Data
Detect and Repair Disk Errors
Protect Your Computer Against Spyware
Free Up Disk Space
By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:
• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files.
• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.
To use Disk Cleanup
1.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
Disk Cleanup calculates the amount of space you will be able to free.
2.
In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.
Choose the files that you want to delete.
3.
Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
4.
When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.
After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.
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Speed Up Access to Data
Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.
Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.
When to Run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals, optimally monthly, certain events warrant running the utility outside of the monthly rule of thumb.
You should run Disk Defragmenter under the following circumstances:
• You add a large number of files.
• Your free disk space nears 15 percent.
• You install new programs or a new version of Windows.
To use Disk Defragmenter:
1.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
Click Analyze to start the Disk Defragmenter.
2.
In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button.
After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.
Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
3.
To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button.
After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
4.
To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.
5.
To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.
6.
To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.
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Detect and Repair Disk Errors
In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should try to run this utility weekly to help prevent data loss.
To run the Error Checking utility:
Important: Be sure to close all files before running the Error-Checking utility.
1.
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2.
In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
3.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
4.
Click the Check Now button.
5.
In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
In most circumstances, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
6.
If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.
Tip: Only select the Automatically fix file system errors check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.
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Apply Windows Updates
If you run Windows and you use the Internet, you simply MUST stay up to date with the system patches that come out in response to the privacy and security exploits that are discovered every week. Failure to do so is an open invitation to hackers and crackers to invade your privacy and enslave your computer in a spam spewing network. To get the latest fixes and configure your system for automatic updates, open Internet Explorer, click on Tools, then Windows Update.
Clean out Viruses and Malware
Are you running a good anti-virus program, with automatic updates? Have you scanned your system for spyware, adware and other unwanted pests? If not, see my articles How can I avoid computer viruses? and Spy, Counter-Spy for details on how to protect yourself from those risks. Viruses and malware can slow down your system a LOT, because they use your resources to generate popup ads, send spam, and often interfere with the operation of good programs.
Remove Unnecessary Software
You may have a bunch of software packages on your hard drive that are no longer needed, or they were gratuitously installed when you downloaded some other package. Toolbars, file-sharing programs, free email enhancers, online shopping "companions" and download managers are notorious for this practice. These uninvited guests can put a big drag on your startup time, cause web pages to load slowly, and generally bog down your computer. Go to Control Panel, then Add/Remove Software to see what packages are installed. Remove the ones you know you don't need, and do a web search to learn about the ones you're not sure about.
Scrub That Hard Disk
Both Windows and application programs tend to leave temporary files lying around on your hard drive, taking up space needlessly. A hard drive that is close to being full can cause Windows to act strangely, and will slow down or interfere with efficient disk access and virtual memory operations. And if you surf the web a lot, your temporary internet files folder can become quite large, causing Internet Explorer to slow down or malfunction. Cleaning up unneeded files, scanning for disk errors and defragmenting the hard drive can help to restore some zip to your system.
First, open My Computer, right-click on the C: Drive icon, select Properties, then click on Disk Cleanup. (Optional: Select the More Options tab to find and remove even more unwanted files.) To run a defrag, open My Computer, right-click on the C: Drive icon, select Properties, then Tools. Click the Check Now button to scan your disk for errors. When the scan is complete, click the Defragment Now button to run the defrag, which reorganizes your hard disk so Windows can find and access files more efficiently. (It's highly recommended that you close all running programs and disable your screen saver before running a defrag. Otherwise, updates to your files may trigger defrag to restart endlessly.)
Okay, Now Take a Breath...
We're more than half-way done with the process of cleaning the junk out of your computer. The rest of the steps may seem a little more geeky, and you can skip any or all of them if you don't feel comfortable digging a little deeper into the workings of the Windows operating system. But there is definitely bang for the buck here. Some of peskiest Windows performance problems can be solved by giving attention to these areas.
Slim Your Startup Selections
There are certain programs that Windows will start every time you boot up your system, and during the startup phase, they're all jockeying for a slice of your CPU. Extra or unwanted items in the startup list will defintely increase your startup time, perhaps by several minutes. To manage the list of startup programs, click on Start / Run, then type MSCONFIG. Press Enter, then select the Startup tab. If you see items in the list you know you don't need to run at startup time, UNcheck the box(es) next to them and press Apply. Some common examples are things related to AOL, RealPlayer, Napster, instant messengers, and video managers. If you're not sure about an item, no big deal. You can turn it off, restart your PC, and see if everything seems to work. If not, you can always go back and re-enable an item in the Startup list. This helpful list may help you decide what to keep or drop.
Clean Your Registry
The REGCLEAN utility from Microsoft, though no longer officially supported for Windows XP, cleans your system registry of unnecessary entries that are created when you install or remove programs on your computer. Sometimes an "orphaned" registry entry can confuse Windows during startup and cause a delay. And in general, slimming down your registry will make Windows run faster. Note: This program is no longer officially supported by Microsoft, but many users report that it works fine on Windows XP systems. You can also try RegSeeker which is a highly rated registry cleaner.
RAM and Virtual Memory Settings
When you run out of physical (RAM) memory, Windows will use a check of your hard disk to create virtual memory. This is a nice feature, because it allows application programs to access huge amounts of memory. The only problem with virtual memory is that it's a lot slower than real RAM. So installing extra RAM on the system board is a good idea because it's pretty cheap and easy to pop in. Find out how much your system will accommodate and install the maximum amount.
Extra RAM will probably do more to boost your overall system performance than anything else!
But getting back to Virtual Memory, it's wise to let Windows manage the amount, unless you are a Wizard, with a capital W. Go to Control Panel / System / Advanced, then press the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced again, then press the Change button under Virtual Memory. If System managed size is selected, you're all set. If you want to fiddle with the Custom Size options, be my guest!
Turn Off Extraneous System Services
We're heading into uber-geek territory here, so be forewarned. Windows doesn't know exactly how you're going to use your computer, so it starts a whole bunch of system services that manage network connections, database access, error reporting, remote access and other nerdy-sounding things. You may not need all these services, and disabling some of them can reduce your startup time and system overhead. But choosing which ones to nuke is a bit daunting, unless you are an expert on Windows operating system internals. Here's my advice... look at these explanations and advice then disable only the ones that you're sure about. If you encounter a problem, you can always go back and turn a service back on.