|
  |
|
|
Speeding Up Windows: Tips and Tricks
You wake up late, still trying to get a grip on where you are. Suddenly, everything comes back to you in a rush. You're about to be late for your class and you have a paper due today! You rush to the computer to do a quick print. You hit the power button...only to have Windows finally start up about ten minutes later. Most college students can relate to this scenario. What if I told you it didn't have to be this way? What if there were a way to make your computer faster -- for free?
Speedy Startups
Just as the example given of the typical college student, many people are frustrated with slow start up speeds. There are many things you can do to increase your computer's speed for money, obviously. For example, you can buy more memory, you can get a faster processor, or more recently, you can purchase a motherboard preinstalled with a technology that allows you to access things like the internet or your documents without the operating system actually starting up. However, we're focusing on free alternatives for this intel. By default in Windows XP, you will have a Run... option in your Start menu. It's a handy little item to have there, so if you don't have it, I'd recommend putting it there. This can be done by right-clicking on the taskbar, then choosing the Properties option. From here, click on the Start Menu tab at the top, then Customize..., then choose the Advanced tab at the top. From here, you scroll through the list of programs until you find "Run Command". Check it, and will now appear on your Start menu. Anyways, getting back on track now... Go to your Start menu, then choose the Run... command. In here, type in 'msconfig' and hit 'OK'. Go to the Startup tab at the top. You'll see a lot of stuff that you won't necessarily understand what it is. In the location section, look at all the items that start with "HKLM" or "HKCU" or something similar. These are registry files and you don't want to mess with them unless you know what you are doing. All the other items, on the other hand, are dispensable. Make sure everything but the items that are in a location starting with "HKLM" or "HKCU" is unchecked. Click 'Apply', the 'OK'. Note that you'll need to have administrative privileges for this to take effect. It will ask you to restart your computer. Do it. When your computer restarts (already much faster than before), a message will pop up asking if you want msconfig to start up every time the computer starts up. Tell it no, then click 'OK'. Item Number One is out of the way and your computer is on its way to being a speed demon!
Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness
Another thing people don't think about too much is the fact that your computer has limited resources. A hard drive (the thing that contains all of the information on your computer) is only so big. Be sure to keep it cleaned up, getting rid of useless information. You can do this firstly be going to My Documents and deleted old documents you don't need anymore. Another good thing to do is to visit your Control Panel (usually on your Start menu), then to go to Add or Remove programs and remove old programs you don't use or need. This cleans up a lot of space! Next, we get into the more complex stuff. So, the average computer user doesn't know this, but there are a ton of files on your computer that you just can't see. It's really for your own protection, as if you deleted half of them or simply moved them, your computer would, for all intents and purposes, die. In order to do what we need to do, however, we will need to see the secret files and folders. How do I do this, you ask? By following my instructions, of course! Note that this will be different in Windows Vista. You will need to make sure that the Vista Security is disabled, as they will not let you view any hidden files and folders because Microsoft assumes anyone using their Operating System is an idiot for some reason. You can find various tutorials on how to do this by searching the internet with Google. This tutorial is becoming long enough on its own without be sidetracking on the horrendous process of disabling Vista Security. Carrying on, go to My Computer. At the top in Windows XP, you'll notice a 'Tools' option. Click on it, then choose 'Folder Options...'. Once this is done, click on the 'View' tab at the top. You'll see a 'Hidden Files and Folders' section in the list. Choose the option 'Show hidden files and folders'. Later, you will want to undo this by repeating this process, and choosing 'Do not show hidden files and folders'. They are hidden for a reason. Now, from My Computer, go to your C drive, then Documents and Settings. From here, click on the folder with your user account on it. For example, my user account is named 'Nathan' so I will click on the folder named 'Nathan'. From here, look for the folder titled 'Cookies' and enter it. Delete all of the contents except for 'index.dat'. You won't be able to delete this file. Now go up a folder and find the folder titled 'Local Settings'. Once in here, enter the folder 'Temporary Internet Files'. Delete all of its contents. This could take some time. Once finished, go up a folder and enter 'Temp'. Delete as many files in this folder as possible. It will tell you there are some files you can't delete because they are being used. That's okay; leave them. Your computer is now pretty clean! Just one more thing... Go to your Start menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally select Disk Cleanup. It'll take a minute to calculate how much disk space you can cleanup. Once it is finished, make sure all the boxes are checked in the menu that appears, then tell it to do it's thing and you're done with cleaning up your disk space!
Picking Up the Pieces
After moving all these files around and deleting things here and there, there are probably going to be a lot of fragmented files. How do you fix this? Well, there just so happens to be a handy little tool on your computer to deal with this problem. Open your Start menu, then go to All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, then select Disk Defragmenter. Once this is open, click 'Defragment'. Windows will go about repairing all of these broken files and folders.
Anti-Virus Software Uses Resources!
One thing to take note of is the fact that anti-virus software such as Mcafee and Norton's is very resource hungry. I recommend free anti-virus software such as AVG or Avast! due to the fact that they are just all around better! They detect more viruses, they are free, and they don't take nearly the amount of resources, which means a faster and safer computer for you!
In Conclusion
All of these things are routine maintenance and should be performed about once a month to make sure that your computer is in optimal condition.
|
Contributor's Note
Feel free to redistribute this intel as desired. It would be nice if you attributed it to me or pointed it to my website, but it is not required.
|
|
|
 |
|
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
Good Job!
A very good issue to speed up Windows is looking for free-ware Portable appz.
I'm using some, and my OS is getting faster! :)
The copyright for this content entitled "Speeding Up Windows: Tips and Tricks" has been specified by the contributor as:
Public Domain
The copyright for this content has been relinquished by the author. The content may be used freely by anyone.
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
