Make Your PC Run Faster
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Introduction
If you find your PC is slower at handling everyday tasks it may be because over time, computers get cluttered with unnecessary files that need cleaning out. A slow PC can also be because your software or hardware is outdated, but there are certain steps you can take to improve performance.
This guide shows you how to give your slow PC a speed boost and also to keep your computer free of clutter.
Causes Of A Slow PC
There are many possible causes of a slow PC. Because your computer is constantly working with files - moving, copying and deleting from place to place - it will eventually get cluttered with leftover files, some of which are not needed and just take up valuable disk space. You only have a certain amount of disk space available on your hard disk, and as it fills up the computer can begin to struggle to find room to perform its tasks.
If your PC crashes or freezes up, it may be a symptom of a slow or cluttered PC.
The brain of your computer is the Processor, and it may be that your processor is too slow to run today's demanding software. The processor can also struggle if you have multiple programs running at once - for example, if you have Word open to compose a letter while downloading a file from the Internet and also playing a song through your media player.
RAM is the temporary memory the computer uses to do its calculations. If you do not have enough RAM, your programs will run slowly.
Other components of your PC can contribute to poor performance, particularly your Graphics Card when it comes to running media and games software. Some hardware needs special programs called Drivers and these need to be kept up to date.
You may also have programs running in the background using up memory that you are unaware of, and in some cases, the problem may be a malicious program such as a virus or spyware.
Solutions
The following is a list of tweaks and tips that can be used to help improve the performance of your PC.
Maintenance
Sometimes, slowdown is caused by physical problems with your PC and its hardware. One example is your PC becoming too hot. It may be that there is a build up of dust which is preventing the cooling fans from doing their job. Your PC should be positioned in a cool place and its air vents should not be blocked.
Always turn off and unplug your PC before you clean it. A can of compressed air can be used to blow out the dust.
Like any piece of equipment, hardware components can start to wear out over time and eventually they will need replacing, usually with a newer model. You should make sure after replacing or upgrading components such as RAM memory or Graphics cards, that they are firmly in place in their slots.
Remove Unwanted Programs
With frequent internet use, we are bound to download things of the internet. With so many free trials, shareware, freeware and demo software available to download, it is now far more easier to download a program, install it, use it once and then never look back at it again.
Surely this is not healthy for your computer right? Right you are about that. So in step 2, we need to clear out all the programs that you have no longer use for. Anything that you have not used in 3 months, get rid of it.
Fact: The hundreds of programs, whether it is an application or a game, will bloat your Windows Registry, which will make your Windows take longer to load. And some of these programs will load its utilities at startup and make your Windows startup longer. That is why the Hourglass of Death can never seem to go away. Not only that, but these programs will also take up space on your hard drive. So get rid of these "parasites" off your computer.
To remove these unwanted programs, you can either use the program's own removing procedure or launch the Add/Remove Programs application provided by Windows.
To access the Add/Remove Programs application, click Start, Control Panel and look for theAdd/Remove Program icon there.
Tip: It is easier to look for the Add/Remove Programs icon, if you switch to Classic View on the left side of the Control Panel Window.
Once the Add/Remove Programs window opens, go through the list of software that you would like to remove. You could even see how frequent the program has been used. Just select any from the list and it will show you.
Just select the program you want to uninstall, and click the "Remove" button. Some file however, are shared across several programs, so if you get a message that ask you if you want to remove them, click the "No" button to be on the safe side.
Disable Unnecessary Processes
The Applications tab in Windows Task Manager only shows the main programs that are running. However, this is not everything: there are also various Processes that run too. Click on the Processes tab to see them.
Many of the processes listed in Task Manager will be legitimate tools required for Windows and other programs to run properly. But you may also find some here that you don't need (and sometimes you may find a process belonging to a harmful virus or spyware program).
The information given here shows you the name of the process and also how much processor (CPU) time it is using up as a percentage of the total available. You can also see the amount of memory the program consumes.
You can right-click on any process and choose End process to stop it running temporarily, but it will most likely start up again when you restart your PC. You should be very careful when ending a process that you do not stop a process that is required by Windows.
You can identify what a process is for by using the Web. Type the name of the process, such as "svchost.exe" into a search engine and see what people have to say about it. If they say it is not required it should be OK to stop it. They may also give instructions on how to remove it permanently so it does not reappear in future.
There are many useful web sites for identifying processes, including:
Remove Malicious Programs
It is important that you use up-to-date security software to detect and remove malicious programs.
Virus programs can slow down your PC and cause unwanted behaviour, even damage to your data and you can download some antivirus softwares here.
Spyware tracks your movements on the Web for advertising purposes, but can affect your PC's performance as well. Use anti-spyware programs to remove it and you can also download it here.
Clear Out Junk Files
Much like anything else, your computer will perform better if it is clean. Over time, your computer will accumulate a lot of files, which most of it are files you don't even need. By clearing up these unwanted files, you computer's speed will improve quite a bit. This is because some of this file will eat up resources needed by your computer to run smoothly. So first thing you need to do is start clearing up your hard disk.
Window's has it's own program to do this for you, called Disk Cleanup. This piece of software help you clear up and purge any of those files that you can do without that accumulates over time.
The most common areas purged by the Disk Cleanup tool are:
- Temporary operating system files
- Temporary internet files
- Temporary program files
- Downloaded program files
- Recycle bin files
- And setup log files
To access this tool, all you need to do is click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then Disk Cleanup.
If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean up. Once you have picked one click OK.
Now, the Disk Cleanup tool will calculate how much disk space it is able to free up. Just wait until it is done. It is advisable not to run any other while doing this.
Once it is done, the Disk Cleanup tool will show you which files can be purge to make more room for your hard disk. If there are any files that you DO NOT want to delete, make sure the check box are clear.
Click OK to proceed. This can take some time to complete. Just leave the PC and make sure that there are no other programs running in the background.
Alternatively, you can also get rid of any other files that you no longer have use for, such as documents, videos, images, music and so on. The goal here is to create as much hard disk space as you can by removing unwanted files.
Clean The Registry
The Registry is where Windows stores information about your programs. Over time, this too can get cluttered and may affect performance.
You can use a Registry cleaning tool such as CCleaner to remove redundant program entries and the tool to tweak your system are available here to download.
Defragmenting Your Hard Drive
If your computer is like a car, then defragmenting is like the motor oil. You need to do this at least once a month, it is the one thing you should do every month.
Here is how defragmenting works: Your computer saves files to areas of the hard drive known as clusters. Ideally, a single file will occupy adjacent clusters, enabling your programs to retrieve that file quickly with minimal drive movement. But as you create new files your computer saves them near old ones, and when you modify old ones the new information gets written to more distant clusters, and over time a single file can get fragmented, or scattered over several nonadjacent clusters. Multiply this by the number of modified files on your system, and pretty soon opening and saving files can get pretty slow. Add in fragmented system files that Windows or applications use automatically, and everything else can get pretty slow, too.
So, defragmenting your files is pretty important, and that is what I always do to How To Make Your PC Faster. So to get these fragmented files in order again, you can use a defragmenting program by running the Disk Defragmenter provided by Windows.
To do this, just click on the "Start" icon at the bottom left of the computer screen and then click on "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools", and select "Disk Defragmenter".
Tip: The defragmenting process can take from a few minutes to several hours, so I recommend you to allocate a time where you would not use your computer for this purpose. I usually let it run overnight. And make sure that there are no other programs running in the background, this could slow down the defragmenting process.
If you have more than one hard drive, select the drive you want to defragment and click Defragment. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, don't bother clicking the Analyze button in the Disk Defragmenter dialog box; it may tell you that you do not need to defragment the drive, but if you have not done so within a month or more you should do it anyway.
In fact, defragmenting once a month should be your goal; this is just often enough to prevent excessive fragmentation before it manifests itself in poor performance, and it prevents the defragmenting process from taking too long. Even if you are fastidious about defragmenting once a month, you should set aside an hour or so for the job.
If your computer is like a car, then defragmenting is like the motor oil. You need to do this at least once a month, it is the one thing you should do every month.
Here is how defragmenting works: Your computer saves files to areas of the hard drive known as clusters. Ideally, a single file will occupy adjacent clusters, enabling your programs to retrieve that file quickly with minimal drive movement. But as you create new files your computer saves them near old ones, and when you modify old ones the new information gets written to more distant clusters, and over time a single file can get fragmented, or scattered over several nonadjacent clusters. Multiply this by the number of modified files on your system, and pretty soon opening and saving files can get pretty slow. Add in fragmented system files that Windows or applications use automatically, and everything else can get pretty slow, too.
So, defragmenting your files is pretty important, and that is what I always do to How To Make Your PC Faster. So to get these fragmented files in order again, you can use a defragmenting program by running the Disk Defragmenter provided by Windows.
To do this, just click on the "Start" icon at the bottom left of the computer screen and then click on "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools", and select "Disk Defragmenter".
Tip: The defragmenting process can take from a few minutes to several hours, so I recommend you to allocate a time where you would not use your computer for this purpose. I usually let it run overnight. And make sure that there are no other programs running in the background, this could slow down the defragmenting process.
If you have more than one hard drive, select the drive you want to defragment and click Defragment. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, don't bother clicking the Analyze button in the Disk Defragmenter dialog box; it may tell you that you do not need to defragment the drive, but if you have not done so within a month or more you should do it anyway.
In fact, defragmenting once a month should be your goal; this is just often enough to prevent excessive fragmentation before it manifests itself in poor performance, and it prevents the defragmenting process from taking too long. Even if you are fastidious about defragmenting once a month, you should set aside an hour or so for the job.
Streamline The Windows Interface
Windows XP (and the new Windows Vista) has a number of effects that make working with files and folders on your screen more pleasing to the eye, such as smooth animated menus and transparent windows.
However, these use the processor too which means they can cause slowdown. Right-click the My Computer icon on the Desktop and click Properties. Click the Advanced tab and under Performance, click Settings and you can choose to switch off some of these effects.
Tweak The Page File
When Windows uses up all the available RAM memory in your computer, it turns to the hard disk for help and uses a Page File as extra space to work with. If the Paging File is too low, Windows can run slowly.
Right-click the My Computer icon on the Desktop and clickProperties. Click the Advanced tab and under Performance, clickSettings then Advanced and you can Change the Virtual Memory settings.
The System managed size option lets Windows determine the best settings for you, but you can choose to set your ownCustom Size if you wish. Type in the amount of disk space you want it to use.
There are varying opinions on what is the best setting, but many recommend putting it at 1.5 times your RAM - so for example if you have 512MB of RAM, you would set both the Initial and Maximum size boxes at 768MB. Click the Set button to accept your changes and see if performance has improved.
If you have plenty of RAM for your computer to use, then setting a large Page File is unnecessary and will just waste space on the hard disk. You should not disable the Page File completely though, as certain programs require it to run properly.
Update Drivers And Windows
In order to make your hardware work properly, Windows needs special programs called Drivers.
It is also important to ensure your Windows system files are up to date. This can help fix problems and protect against security threats.
Speed Up Games
Games performance, especially for demanding 3D games, is very dependent on hardware, specifically the graphics card and also your processor and RAM memory. If you want to run the latest games at their highest quality settings, you will need to have powerful hardware.
However, there are things you can do to help your current PC run games better. First, make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics card by visiting www.nvidia.com for Nvidia GeForce cards or http://ati.amd.com for ATI cards.
Most PC games include display options in their menu screens. You can often choose from a simple performance setting - for example: Low, Medium or High, or you can get more involved with advanced options. Some games let you tweak or switch off things like shadows and other special effects that can put a strain on your system.
Often, it is a case of experimenting to get a good balance between visual quality and performance. A common setting to tweak is the resolution: choosing a higher resolution will mean clearer, more detailed screens but can cost performance. You can only go up to the highest resolution that your monitor can support.
When playing games, you should make sure not to run other programs in the background, especially anti-virus software, as these can contribute to slowing down your game.
Upgrade Hardware
Upgrading hardware such as RAM or the graphics card is a common way for PC users to improve the speed of their machine.
PCs bought from stores will often only have integrated graphics cards which are not powerful enough to run demanding applications such as the latest games. Many users later choose to replace these on-board cards with a better graphics card from the Nvidia GeForce or ATI Radeon ranges.
Sometimes you will not be able to get the most out of your brand new hardware without replacing other components which support it too, such as the PSU (power supply unit). You will also need to make sure any new hardware is compatible with your current PC's specifications before you buy it.
More advanced users can investigate the technique of "over-clocking" hardware to squeeze as much power and speed as possible from it, but this must be done with caution as it can cause physical damage to components.
Windows Vista users can take advantage of a new feature called ReadyBoost which enables you to plug in a USB memory stick which the computer can use as additional RAM memory.
The Windows Experience Index
A new feature for Windows Vista is the Windows Experience Index, which is aimed at helping users understand how well Vista and the software running on it will perform on a specific PC.
The PC is awarded a score based on its hardware configuration. When buying certain software, you will see a recommended Windows Experience Index score that a PC will need in order to run the program properly.
More Information
There are many sites on the Web with advice about improving performance and tweaking your PC. One of the best sites to check out, which has useful guides for tweaking your system settings and improving performance of specific games, can be found at www.tweakguides.com.
There are also many programs available which claim to be able to boost your PC's speed, however it is worth doing some research first as sometimes these programs can actually have a detrimental effect.
If you are looking at upgrading or buying new PC hardware, www.tomshardware.com has reviews and comparisons of PC components.
Links
- Windows Process Library
- Process Library
- Windows Process and Task List
- CCleaner
- Nvidia Drivers
- ATI Drivers
- TweakGuides
- Toms Hardware
- File Hippo
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