subject: How Can I Speed My Computer Up?- Tips for a faster Machine! [print this page] How Can I Speed My Computer Up?- Tips for a faster Machine!
Answering the question, "How can I speed my computer up?" depends on what is slowing your computer down. However, here are a number of ways that will result in a faster computer if implemented.
1. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows and have 4GB of RAM or more, you can force Windows to see and use all of the RAM by enabling PAE.
2. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely.
3. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtual machines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openxVM.
4. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.
5. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they "normally" help your computer work better.
6. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging file to the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS.
7. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files and cookies to free up disk space.
8. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance.
9. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.
10. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance.
11. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the MenuShowDelay key in the registry.
12. Improve Vista performance by using ReadyBoost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism.
13. One of the main reasons why PC's are slow is because of spyware, so remove spyware, malware and viruses.
14. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lots more.
15. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size on NTFS to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.
16. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings.
17. Install an anti-virus program to help protect against viruses, etc. Make sure to use an anti-virus program that does not hog up all of your computer resources.
These tips should satisfy to a large extent the question, "How can I speed my computer up?
