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subject: 10 Ways To Increase The Speed Of Your Computer [print this page]


All home computers operate with blazing speed and efficiency upon initial purchase, indeed, there is nothing like the feeling of a "new" computer. You choose the computer at the retailers, you bring it home, you open the boxes, set it all up and you're enjoying the internet and your chosen applications at a speed seemingly much faster than your previous computer. All is well, and your computer lives happily ever after with blazing speed! Until you begin to notice, with time, that your computer is not quite as fast as it once was. It takes longer to start-up, it takes longer to process commands and opening and closing large applications seems to take an eternity. Pretty soon, you're constantly checking the task manager to see which applications you can kill so as to free up additional memory, all while wondering "why is my computer so slow?". By this point, using the computer is a tedious chore, it hogs up more of your time than it's supposed to, doesn't run at optimal levels and you're likely spending an inordinate amount of time problem solving - determining if there is a problem, determining what the problem is, finding out how to rectify the situation and then going about attaining any tools, patches or programs that are required to restore your computer to its once effective state of operation.

Doesn't sound like much fun, does it? When you sit down in front of your computer, you want it to do what it's supposed to do: operate reliably so you can spend your time using it for its intended purpose and not spend any amount of time learning about how to fix a slow computer. But the truth is, after you've had your computer for a while, with regular use it will inevitably become slower. Rather than spend a lot of time explaining what slows down your computer, let's instead observe some different methods to restore some of that speed and efficiency to your computer.

1) Uninstall any fonts that are not considered system critical in windows. Then reason for this is, when windows is booted it needs to load fonts into memory. When you uninstall fonts, windows will prompt you as to which ones cannot be deleted so there is no need to worry about accidentally deleting something you shouldn't be. While this may not seem like a critical area, sometimes the font folder can contain hundreds of fonts and be quite large in size, so eliminating what is not necessary will shave some time off your start-up length.

2) Turn off non-essential Windows services. Windows loads a surprising (and significant) amount of programs upon start-up, many of which are not actually essential to anything you'd be doing once the computer has started - any non-essential programs that load during start-up are slowing down your start-up time. However, you must only turn off programs that are not critical to windows functionality. You can accomplish this by running msconfig from the Start Menu's search box (just type "msconfig" into the text field without the quotations), and then navigate to the Startup tab. This applications list will tell you what exactly each of those applications does, so you know which ones you can disable and which ones you can't.

3) Disable any unused hardware. By default, your computer loads a lot of drivers when it first starts up, some of which you might not even use or even be aware of. navigate into the Device Manager from the Start Menu's search box, and examine the list for anything you aren't using - Bluetooth controllers, modems, and virtual Wi-Fi adapters are common items that load at start-up but that the majority of users do not actually require. You can disable any item in the list by right-clicking on the entry you want to turn off and click "Disable". Remember: only do this with items you don't actually use - if you use Wireless Hosted Networks, you'll need to keep those virtual Wi-Fi adapters enabled. It should also be stated here that keeping all your drivers up to date will help tremendously with start-up time and will spare you having to waste time finding and installing update or missing drivers while you are working.

4) Ensure your anti-virus is up to date. Perhaps the single most common sense item that should accompany all internet connected computers is an anti-virus program. This should go without saying, but just to clarify: install some type of antivirus software, keep it up to date, and run it regularly to scan your entire computer for intrusions and anything else that may compromise your computer, and thus, your productivity or enjoyment. Anti-virus is of course more suitably classified as a preventative measure rather than something that will speed your boot time, but as many anti-virus programs will check for malware, it is an imperative step to ensuring optimum operating speeds since malware will most definitely slow down your computer's ability to boot quickly. If you are a windows user you can try Microsoft Security Essentials, as it is free, very effective and of course, made to run in harmony with a widows based operating system. If you do not prefer Microsoft Security Essentials there is some great non-Microsoft programs out there too, just make sure if you're using the internet you are protected and up to date.

5) When you first start up your computer, it spends time asking the network for an IP address. You can get rid of this process (and trim some waiting off your start-up time) altogether by giving your computer a static or fixed IP address that will not change constantly. This is beneficial in two ways - not only does this make your network easier to manage (since each computer will always have the same unchanged IP address), but it can shave a bit more time off your startup. Each version of windows is of course different, so you can consult the help function in your windows explorer (or just Google search the information specific to your version of windows) to find out how to perform this task.

With a little bit of non-intrusive, easy to perform maintenance, your extremely slow computer will be back to operating quickly and efficiently - just like the day you bought it.

by: Dominic Acito




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