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How to speed up your PC in a five easy steps
This article will help show you how to speed up your computer in five easy steps. Is your computer freezing and taking long for the pages to load up while you are browsing online? Is it taking longer to power up or down? Is your computer or laptop slower now than it used to be before? If you answered yes to any of these questions then these steps will greatly help to speed your PC back up and return some of the speed it once had.
Note** Sometimes a computer can be slowed down due "temp files" taking up valuable space. If you have never cleaned out your computer's temporary files, or you want to know more about this then be sure to read How to speed up your PC or laptop in 3 easy steps and How to get rid of temp files on Windows XP.
How to Speed up your PC in five easy steps
Let’s begin by performing a disk clean up. The amount of time these steps may take will greatly depend on when was the last time they were done to the PC or laptop.
Step 1. Hit Start, then all programs, then Accessories, followed by hitting System Tools then Disk Cleanup. You will see a box like this one below
Once Disk Cleanup has finished running you will see this box pop up.
Again, depending on when was the last time you did this it may take a while. Be sure to check off the first 3 boxes (as in picture)
Step 2. The next step involves doing what is called a Disk defragmentation. This will help place all the Program files you use most up front, and those you use the least in the back. Read more on what defragmentation is here.
Hit Start, then All programs, then hit Accessories, followed by System Tools then Disk defragment. You will now see this box will pop up.
*Note* You will need at least 15% of free hard disk space in order for Disk Defrag to run.
If you have never run disk defrag it may take a while. (this should be done at least 1 a month)
The purpose for these next steps is so that you may know what programs are running on your computer each time you start it up. Any programs that you may have installed in your computer may have attached themselves to your 'start-up' memory. The startup is all the little icons you see on the right side of your PC or laptop (where the clock is) Most programs such as Antivirus, Firewall and of course the clock are needed to start up each time you start your PC. Others, however, are not. Here you will find that many programs will attach themselves and will start up each and every time you start your PC. This will greatly slow down your computer as it will use unnecessary memory and resources.
Step 3. Let's hit Start, and then Run. You will then see a pop up box like this
Inside type "msconfig" without the quotations! This will bring up a this box called System Configuration Utility.
Step 4. In the System Configuration Utility box go down to the 6th tab called 'Startup' Now it will look like this
Let's take a look at some of these programs. Depending on how many programs you have installed on your PC or Laptop will determine how many programs you see here. You should see (if you have installed them) programs such as MSN, Yahoo messenger, Skype or so on. You or the computer DO NOT need any of these to startup.
Step 5. Carefully look at these programs with a green check mark on them and un-check any you feel are not needed. After you have unchecked any of the ones you do not want hit OK. Do not worry. Un-checking them will NOT delete them from your computer. It will simply stop them from hogging up precious memory and resources.
TIP: Most System needed programs will be Labeled SOFTWARE on the third row where it says location. System needed programs will have a HKLM or HKCU at the beginning. If you are unsure then leave it alone. You can always re-check them again to undo any changes.
Now hit 'Apply' and you will then get a warning box like this one informing you that you must restart your computer in order for the changes to take effect. Hit restart.
Upon your computer restarting you will get a box informing you of the changes you made. Select "Do not show me this message again" then hit OK and close it out.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I highly recommend that you get rid of your old 'temp files' as well. If you DO NOT have an Internet Security program such as ZoneAlarm or AVG then I implore you to get one. . Browsing the web without one is the worst and most dangerous things you can do as far as PC protection is concerned. Without a good anti-virus program in place all your personal information (such as credit cards, passwords) can be easily obtained by hackers. You can also read this article If you want to know What Are Registry Errors on Your Computer and this one on How to Scan for Registry errors and how to Fix Them.
If you follow these steps you should notice an improvement in the speed and performance of your PC.
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