Speed Up Your Computer"s Performance Without Spending a Dime
Over time computers begin to slow down, freeze up and crash.
This can be very frustrating and ruin a great video game.
There is nothing worse than being right in the middle of an important quest and have your computer freeze or crash.
Fortunately, there are things that you can do to speed up your computer's performance without spending a dime.
The following tips can help.
Clean Out Your Start-Up Programs Did you know that programs can be running in the background on your computer even when you don't have anything pulled up? As you install things on your computer they begin to build-up.
Over time, they begin to take a toll on your CPU or system configuration utility and dramatically slow down your PC.
You can solve this problem by following 3 simple steps: 1.
Go to the Start Menu and type MSCONFIG.
exe.
2.
When the system configuration shows up hit the "Startup" tap and this will show you everything that's running in the background.
3.
Turn off everything you don't need by removing the checkmark in the box beside the program.
If you don't know what a specific program does, research it before removing the checkmark.
Once you clean out your start up programs leaving only the ones that you really need, you'll see a big difference in how fast your computer turns on and off.
The more programs you have running in the background, the longer it takes for the system to come on and the slower it runs so this will help in both areas.
More Tips for Improving Performance There are a few more things that you can do to improve performance and they include reducing the visual effects, uninstalling programs and defragging your hard drive.
You can speed up your computer simply by disabling some of the visual effects.
This will affect the appearance of the visual effects and if you're a gamer this may not be something that you want to do.
However, if it means eliminating the crashes and stopping the computer from freezing, it may be worth it.
Some of the features that you can turn off that you probably wouldn't miss would be the transparent glass look, displaying shadows and the way the menus open and close.
Of course, what you can and cannot turn off will depend on the operating system that you have.
Window's Vista owners should type "Performance" into the search bar then select "Performance Information and Tools".
Click the tab that says "Adjust Visual Effects" and turn off the ones you can do without.
If you're using Window's XP, go into the control panel and select "Performance and Maintenance" and choose the tab labeled "Adjust Visual Effects".
From here you can turn off the ones you don't need.
You may also have an option to check a box labeled "Click for Best Performance" that will adjust the visual effects automatically.
If you don't know which programs you can turn off, use this option.
Uninstalling programs is an easy step that can make a big difference.
Simply go into the control panel under "Programs" and click on "Uninstall a Program".
Go through the list of programs and uninstall any that you don't need or want anymore.
Defragging your hard drive simply rearranges fragmented data on your computer so the hard drive disk will work more efficiently speeding up the performance of your computer.
The disk defragmenter will run occasionally on its own but you can defrag your hard drive manually and increase performance.
All of these tips will help to speed up your computer's performance without spending a dime.
This can be very frustrating and ruin a great video game.
There is nothing worse than being right in the middle of an important quest and have your computer freeze or crash.
Fortunately, there are things that you can do to speed up your computer's performance without spending a dime.
The following tips can help.
Clean Out Your Start-Up Programs Did you know that programs can be running in the background on your computer even when you don't have anything pulled up? As you install things on your computer they begin to build-up.
Over time, they begin to take a toll on your CPU or system configuration utility and dramatically slow down your PC.
You can solve this problem by following 3 simple steps: 1.
Go to the Start Menu and type MSCONFIG.
exe.
2.
When the system configuration shows up hit the "Startup" tap and this will show you everything that's running in the background.
3.
Turn off everything you don't need by removing the checkmark in the box beside the program.
If you don't know what a specific program does, research it before removing the checkmark.
Once you clean out your start up programs leaving only the ones that you really need, you'll see a big difference in how fast your computer turns on and off.
The more programs you have running in the background, the longer it takes for the system to come on and the slower it runs so this will help in both areas.
More Tips for Improving Performance There are a few more things that you can do to improve performance and they include reducing the visual effects, uninstalling programs and defragging your hard drive.
You can speed up your computer simply by disabling some of the visual effects.
This will affect the appearance of the visual effects and if you're a gamer this may not be something that you want to do.
However, if it means eliminating the crashes and stopping the computer from freezing, it may be worth it.
Some of the features that you can turn off that you probably wouldn't miss would be the transparent glass look, displaying shadows and the way the menus open and close.
Of course, what you can and cannot turn off will depend on the operating system that you have.
Window's Vista owners should type "Performance" into the search bar then select "Performance Information and Tools".
Click the tab that says "Adjust Visual Effects" and turn off the ones you can do without.
If you're using Window's XP, go into the control panel and select "Performance and Maintenance" and choose the tab labeled "Adjust Visual Effects".
From here you can turn off the ones you don't need.
You may also have an option to check a box labeled "Click for Best Performance" that will adjust the visual effects automatically.
If you don't know which programs you can turn off, use this option.
Uninstalling programs is an easy step that can make a big difference.
Simply go into the control panel under "Programs" and click on "Uninstall a Program".
Go through the list of programs and uninstall any that you don't need or want anymore.
Defragging your hard drive simply rearranges fragmented data on your computer so the hard drive disk will work more efficiently speeding up the performance of your computer.
The disk defragmenter will run occasionally on its own but you can defrag your hard drive manually and increase performance.
All of these tips will help to speed up your computer's performance without spending a dime.
Source...