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Tips to help speed up that
computer
n.b. The greatest increase in speed on a well used cluttered machine results
from reformatting the hard disk
But it is a major operation. For XP see
http://askbobrankin.com/reformat_hard_drive_under_xp.html
I have decided to try and simplify this page. Although much of what is stated is true this is what I have learnt over time
Don't judge a PC's speed until it has been started at least ten minutes. This is because many things are happening during this period.
The main causes of slowness are (a) lack of or overuse available RAM memory and (b) the lack of or overuse of processing power (c) almost full hard disk.
If you are suffering sudden slowing up press Ctl + Shift + Esc and look at the Performance tab. The top graph shows the percentage of processing power being used, the lower graph shows how much memory is in use.
If the top graph has shot up to 100% you will not be able to do ANYTHING on the PC until it drops down (normally should be around 1% - 5%)
In addition to the memory graph there are figures showing memory use and availability.
So, what can be done ?
1. Make sure your hard disk is NOT almost full. Click on 'My Computer', then right click the hard disk (C), then click Properties. The pie chart should show plenty of free space. If not you must either clear off a lot of files and programs, especially videos, pictures, music (putting them onto CDs?) or add a new hard disk or get a new PC.
2. Get as much memory as your PC can handle. To check this go to www.crucial.com/uk. It is usually easy to fit but, if you are nervous take it to a proper computer shop.
3. It is more difficult to increase computing power (without getting a new PC) but, if either graph drops dramatically after closing a program, the problem was caused by the program(s) you were using.
There are other causes of slowness - including viruses - but they are unlikely to be cured by Defragging, Register cleanup or too many programs on your PC (unless it is nearly full)
Some of the above are dealt with in more detail below.
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There are two distinct areas where computers seem unusually slow. The
first is at startup and the second when things appear to have
almost ground to a halt when you are trying to work.
ALL modern computers are slow to start up, even the fastest. This is
because initially they have so much to do. It is not unusual for computers
to be labouring under the weight of over 30 processes PLUS over 30
scheduled activities. So, you had better let it get on with
the job and NOT confuse it by trying to get your emails, write a letter or
play a game until it has settled down. It only makes matters worse. You CAN
reduce the number of programs loaded at startup by installing a program called
Soluto. For more detail
on this excellent program see HERE. But even so
there will be many programs loaded which are essential to the running of
a Windows PC, especially any security software. So leave it alone for at
least ten minutes.
But sometimes, even after the startup process has settled down, you may find that the PC is so slow that when you try to type the letters are delayed before they appear on screen or else the machine will not let you do anything, although the activity light is busily flashing away.
The useful Task Manager
The first thing I do when this happens is to press Ctl + Shift + ESC to get
to the Task Manager. You can do this without fear of changing anything. I
do this to investigate the headings Applications, Processes, Services
and Performance. I then click on each of these in turn. If your
are not using any programs there should be nothing in Applications. If one
is open you can click on it and click "End Task". This is a very
useful ploy at any time if the PC seems to be stuck with one program open.
Next I go to Performance and look at the top graph. Wait a few
seconds until the graph settles and look on the left. This gives the
percentage of the main computer processor which is being used. Without activity
(programs actually in use) the graph should be anything from zero to 10 %.
If the graph is very high and stays high, you are beginning to track down
the cause of the slowness. Your efforts to do some work are being thwarted
by some other activities going on. One needs to find out what. It can
be a number of things. Several companies, including Microsoft and your anti
virus company may be checking to see if your PC is up to date or may even
be downloading that update. Your fast PC is actually not that good at
multi-tasking. There may be a clue on the Taskbar, bottom right. A yellow
exclamation mark indicates the Microsoft wants to download an update. To
detect this it has to check your PC and this takes computing power. r.
Keep the Performance graph in view. (You can drag it to one side using
the left button mouse on the top bar) Get the update later. Now click
on the anti virus icon and check to see if that is anxious to download an
update or is doing so. Move the mouse pointer to the other icons on that
bottom line and check what they are. Many are unimportant and you can right
click and exit them. They will reappear when you restart your PC.
Note whether the Performance graph is affected when you close any.
Do not exit the anti virus program while you are still on line. But, considering
that some anti virus programs sap the energy of you PC, you might wish to
disconnect from the internet (pull the power plug out of the modem or router)
and close the AV program. If the graph falls dramatically you have
found a cause. Perhaps you should find a program that suits your PC
better. Do not reconnect to the internet until you have restarted the PC
and your AV program is active again.
Enough memory ?
If the PC still seems to be sluggish it is worth looking at the lower performance
graph. This indicates how much memory is in use. Right now mine says
49% of 2Gb. Look on the left and see how much memory you have. For XP I recommend
at least 512Mb, for Vista and W7 at least 2Gb. If your PC shows that, at
rest, a high percentage of memory is in use, this is a good reason it is
permanently slow. Click on
www.crucial.com/uk It will
download a small program that will check your machine and recommend what
memory you need. It is moderately easy to fit. If you have a desktop
machine you will have to take the case off. If it is a laptop you are
likely to find the memory slots underneath under a small square of plastic.
You may have to use a small screwdriver to access the memory.
Memory hogging programs
Some programs even take a while to release memory after they have been closed.
Recently, I used this practice (Ctl+shift+Esc) to check why my PC suddenly
slowed up. I was using Google Earth Street mode and the PC,
a dual core Intel model with 2 Gig of memory) showed that it was using
99% of its memory because of that one program. Even after closing Google
Earth it appeared to remain active under the Processes heading. Leaving it
to its own devices it took a good minute for the CPU activity and memory
to settle down and return to a more normal 31% of memory use. Had I
tried to work - say on word processing - during that minute it would have
meant slow typing and slow saving. Just moving the cursor would have been
laborious.
The graph below demonstrates how using Google Earth street view absorbs most of the memory. After closing the program the PC can take a minute to recover from this before other programs can be used. One just has to be patient.
If it is still slow, and there is no apparent cause, next go to the Processes tab in Task Manager. Look down the list of processes that are working in the background. There are a lot. Note especially if any of the figures on the right (memory usage) are changing. Some even arrive and disappear. Make a note. The biggest memory users are Explorer (25Mb?) Desktop Manager (25Mb?) and Rapport Services (as much as 27Mb) This latter has been introduced by banks as a security measure. It would only appear if you bank on line. But, as a newcomer, it may be the reason that some PCs are suddenly low on available memory. If your AV program appears and is taking a massive amount of memory (AVG/Norton?) then this needs looking into. Personally, I prefer Microsoft's Security Essentials
Another useful (Microsoft) program that can show what is going on in the background is Procexp.exe See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
Lastly, and most difficult to nail down and probably disguised from view, your PC may have a virus. So, do anti virus full scans and an anti adware scan and I recommend a clearout with Ccleaner. There is probably NO anti virus program which will find everything, so it is advisable to use at least two 'Malware checkers' and maybe more programs to scan your PC. See my page on viruses.
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March 2011 Although I rarely advocate Registry Cleaning as an aid to speed, some people swear by it. Computer Active magazine recommends the program from Wisecleaner.com for this activity. It allows you to inspect the items it suggests you clean, so you can decide whether you want to. Best of all, it starts by making a backup in Restore in case messing with the register has effects you don't like and you want to go back. The latest Ccleaner program also has a registry checker.
I get a lot of information from a site by Bob Rankin, who sits in California just trying to help people. To read his article on speeding a computer click here. Although this refers to an XP machine much of it applies to all Windows PCs. If all else fails see my page on Buying a Computer ! Click HERE. It may be quicker (and cheaper) in the end and you would now get one with the latest Windows (7) and be ahead of the field
September 2010 An additional tip for speeding a Vista or Windows 7 PC at startup : Automatic defragmenting the hard disk is likely to be scheduled to happen at 1 a.m. every Wednesday. As many of you are tucked up in bed at that time this lengthy process does not happen until you next switch on the PC. This could account for some additional slowness on that day. To change the time to one when the PC is idle go to Start and type Defrag (don't press enter). Amend the schedule. Also check which drives are being defragged. Generally only the C: drive needs this. Windows XP does not schedule defragging and you may wish to add the process to the scheduler.
May 2010 FunWeb Products is responsible for a number of sites such as Smiley Central and MyWebsearch. They collect information about your activities and are also said to slow computers down. You are better off without this rubbish. See http://www.pchell.com/support/smileycentral.shtml as to how to detect them and remove them
April 2010 Another interesting one. A friend wanted to prepare a Powerpoint demonstration on a laptop but it was so slow he couldn't get on with the job. He told me that he didn't ever need that PC to be connected to the net, so I proceeded to delete things that were using the 250Mb hard disk. First I clicked Disable all on the Msconfig start up items (a dozen). But having restarted his XP machine I found that his Avast anti virus was still trying to access the net and his Windows Update was also fishing around for things from Microsoft. In the end I had to uninstall the anti virus program and STOP his firewall AND his automatic updating (go to Security Centre in the Control Panel). Although I would not recommend that he reconnects to the net, the machine came back to life with a vengeance and he was able to get on with things. Which shows why so many PCs seem so slow, especially at startup. They are using ALL their 'resources' trying to check for updates, not only to AV and Windows but also to Real Player, Quicktime, Java, iTunes and a load of other things, which are not needed if you just want to get on and write something !
December 09 Very Slow computer ! I was called in to help with an XP computer that was so slow you wondered if there was anyone in there at all ! I pressed Ctl + Shift + Esc (the Task Manager Performance tab. The graph showed the processor (the main chip) was being used nearly 100% of the time, leaving no capacity to run any programs. I suspected a virus but several (very slow) checks showed nothing. Clicking Applications showed none running. Clicking processes showed different ones were active at different times. I used Msconfig, Startup tab to untick almost everything apart from the antivirus program, Ctfmon and the internet connection. Still the processor was working frantically and the hard disk light flickered or stayed on permanently. I noticed that, each time I started the PC the yellow update icon appeared on the bottom line but no matter how many updates I downloaded it still showed up. Looking at 'My Computer' I found that there was plenty of memory (a gigabyte) and loads of hard disk space. But, for some reason it showed only Service Pack2. So SP3 had never been downloaded. Well, it is at least 350Mb and takes all night on a dialup connection, so people on dialup never get around to it. Fortunately I had bought an SP3 disk from Microsoft and installed that (no longer available from Microsoft). That was followed by a number of further smaller updates. Task Manager showed a considerable drop in activity so I used my pet speed test - Spider Solitaire ! Instead of cards lazily drifting up, they shot up with a sound like a machine gun! SORTED! But I recommended that they leave the PC alone to settle down for ten minutes after pressing the On button before using it. And watch that activity light. For people who run XP and still haven't got Service Pack 3, another way would be to download it to a faster machine, then copy it over to the slow PC using a memory key. Bear in mind it is at least 350Mb
If you want a safe and thorough Cleanup program I recommend Ccleaner from www.piriform.com. These days it will (a) tell you all about your computer, its speed and how much of that vital memory you have. (B) it can also let you look at those Startup items, which often slow things down, especially at Startup. (C) It will let you see what programs you have on the PC, save a list so you can print it out and see if what mysterious programs you have on there. And much more besides
February 2009. There is a an exhaustive and quite technical list of suggestions about speeding your PC if you click HERE. Surprisingly he didn't mention my current favourite - see next para.
First of all, I would like to say that this page is NOT based on the numerous articles which suggest how you should increase the speed of your PC. Rather it is based on my own experience over the years and those things that appear to make the computer 'feel' faster. Obviously (or not) the speed of the computer processor has a great deal to do with how fast it runs and one which has a 3.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or Dual or Quad processor is going to get along much faster that one with a Pentium 2 200Mhz job. But seventeen times as fast ? Not in my experience. Some people think that having a lot of programs and files on their hard disk will cause slowness. Not so (providing you have plenty of space left on the hard disk). But having a lot of programs working at the same time CAN be a cause. To check if you have enough hard disk space (minimum 1 Gb) click on My Computer on the desktop and right click on the C: drive. Then click Properties. View the pie chart. Hopefully you have at least 10% free. If you do not, apart from slowing your PC, you will find that RESTORE backups are not being made because you have insufficient disk space.... very dangerous.
There was a time when I considered lack of memory to be less important than I do now. But, these days there are so many programs that work in the background, such as XP, anti virus, firewall and others, that your machine probably needs more memory than it did when you first bought it. Also, on many less expensive models the graphics 'share' the memory . So, the first thing to do is check how much physical memory your PC has. This is contained on chips on strips on the PC motherboard. (It should NOT be confused with the amount of space you have on the hard disk.) To do this, right-click the Task Bar, the area to the right of the Start button, (or press Ctrl+Shift+Del) and choose Task Manager. Click on the Performance tab and see what it says at the bottom under 'Physical Memory (K)' It will say something like 523,000 (if you have 512Mb installed) or 250,000. Make a note of that and especially how much is available including the cache.
If you have less than 100mb available for use with various additional programs you may find that the 'activity light' on the front of the PC is flickering a lot. This is because, instead of using real memory the computer is having to resort to a reserve type of memory called 'virtual'. Really that means that the machine is having to swap things on and off the hard disk, which is a slow VERY process. So, if you are down to, say 60,000 free (including the 'cache') it is worth checking whether you can add some extra memory. The best site to do this is www.crucial.com, the widely acknowledge experts in this field. Click 'Scan My System'. In most cases Crucial will be able to check your machine and tell you what memory is suitable. Make a note of it and whether it says you have any free slots. They will sell it to you if you want. Or you can go to your local computer shop or search on line for memory. Putting it in the machine is a fairly simple process. Once inserted in the appropriate slot the machine should recognise it as soon as you restart it. If you are nervous about what memory to get or how to install it I suggest you go to a good computer store and ask them. " If I buy some memory from you will you install it for me? ".
Also note the graph above, which should show a big jump for when you went into the program, then it should settle down to something like 4 - 8 % if you machine is idling. If the graph stays high then your computer processor is having to work very hard all the time and this is a sign that something is happening (that, perhaps, shouldn't) and will make it difficult and slow to start the programs you want to use. It needs investigating and can be caused by a number of things such as the bug mentioned in the next paragraph.
Also memory problems can be caused by this : Programs that require a lot of memory won’t run under XP SP2 Have you ever received an error message that said “Not enough memory” or “out of memory” when you try to run certain program on an XP SP2 computer? It could be because of a .dll file in XP SP2 that causes virtual memory available to the program to be fragmented. There is a hot fix available, and you can find out how to get it by reading KB article 894472. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894472/en-us
A little known Microsoft Tool to analyse what processes are running on your PC is Process Explorer from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx This does the same sort of thing that you get when you use Ctl + Alt+Del to see the Task Manager. But it is much more detailed.
Back in 2007 a Microsoft bug related to the important program SVCHOST.EXE which had been causing a dramatic slowdown of Windows XP machines. Microsoft reckon that update patches will have fixed this, so make sure you have the latest updates. How do you know if you have this problem? If your system is experiencing a dramatic slowdown, try launching Windows Task Manager to see. To do this, right-click the Task Bar, the area to the right of the Start button, (or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and choose Task Manager. Make sure the Processes tab is active, and click Image Name to sort the list. You'll see one or more instances of svchost.exe way down the list. If the CPU column shows 100%, or the memory usage seems extraordinarily high (it should be a very small figure most of the time), you may be experiencing this bug. To check how much of your machine's memory is currently being used by all processes click the Performance heading. Most of the time it should show a massive jump but then followed by a steady, much lower percentage use.
System Restore can also temporarily slow the computer's performance if it chooses to make a restore checkpoint the system while a user is using the PC. It makes a restore point once a day, probably during startup, so that can be yet another reason that startup takes longer than you would otherwise expect.
Anti Virus checkups can take a long time on a big hard disk. And if they insist on checking up every time you switch on it can take for ever. with some programs, such as AVAST you can minimise the checkup and get on with something else (though a little slower maybe). But I have heard that AVG will not allow you to do other things - which is a pain. There is absolutely no need to have it scheduled to check up every time. I understand that to take off the scheduling you should .....
In fact there is a new scourge which is affecting the speed of computers. As computers have become faster so the programmers have sought to create more and more sophisticated programs to utilise that speed. Sometimes this is termed 'bloatware'. A contact recently asked about downloading a 'driver' for her graphics card. At 40Mb it was so large that her dialup computer cut her off every time before the download was complete. It was going to take over two hours ! Just to install a program to make the screen work! Apart from this there are legitimate programs that seek to protect you. Anti virus software is getting bigger and more sophisticated. So every time you go on line it is spending time looking at every move you make, so slowing the things you want to do. Then Microsoft starts downloading its security updates. And you wonder why everything is going at a snail's pace! Recently I found that the typing I was doing was being delayed by several seconds. It was stopping me working. In the end I found that deleting the Google Desktop program brought my computer back up to speed. Why ? Because the Google Desktop spends its time indexing everything you do (with the intention of making the occasional search quicker), thus not letting you get on with things. It was probably developed by some guru who had a much faster machine. For much more detail how to uninstall the Google Desktop Indexing program (as I have) have a look at http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/05/10/tattletale_convenience/
Similarly, it has been found that Internet Explorer V. 7.0, which is being installed by millions of people around the globe, automatically installs a "Phishing Detector". Great idea. No one wants to fall for that old trick and let some Russian gangster get hold of your bank details. Unfortunately, the cost of this is bringing your PC to a standstill because it goes to Microsoft every time you visit a website. You can either turn it off or (preferably) get a Microsoft patch from the knowledge Base article KB928089 Here Mozilla's alternative Browser, Firefox, which I prefer, just downloads a phishing site list from time to time, so is faster.
Sometimes your PC slows down for a while. This can be because it is downloading something (like an update for your anti virus program or maybe 18 Microsoft Security patches!). Give it a chance to speed up again next time you start it. In fact, restarting the PC can occasionally make quite a difference.
The common wisdom is that speed depends to a large extent on the amount of memory (RAM) you have. Whilst it is necessary to have sufficient memory for the Windows version which you use I can recall very basic machines which have run Windows 95 quite happily on 8Mb of RAM ! Increasing the RAM on a 400Mhz Win 98 system from 32Mb to 64Mb or more seemed to make very little difference. But if you have Windows XP, then you MUST have a minimum of 128Mb but preferably 512Mb (now my recommendation is 1 Gb). If you are a 'light' user (email, word processing) you may not notice the difference. But if you open several programs or do memory intensive things such as working with large graphics, video and the like that is a different matter. In the case of Vista Premium, you will need a minimum of 1Gb memory and more is recommended. If you do not wish to add more memory than 512 Mb then stick to Vista Home Basic. Or order a machine with XP installed, instead. Some companies will do this but Dell will charge extra.
One sign that you need extra memory is if you get messages saying that you are short of VIRTUAL memory. Virtual memory is not ACTUAL memory on a memory stick in the PC. It is actually a space on the hard disk which is being used temporarily because the main memory is in full use. At least it usually stops the machine from crashing but swapping stuff on and off the hard disk is a slow, tedious business and you will notice the difference. There are two things you can do. Either add extra memory to your PC or you might get away with changing the Virtual Memory settings. Click Start, Help and type in Virtual and follow the instructions. I favour "Let the system decide" but the recommendation is that this 'paged' memory should be not less that 1.5 times than your actual memory (RAM). So if you have 512Mb RAM then it should be at least 750Mb of hard disk space. If you have less than 1Gb of hard disk space these days your machine WILL run slower.
Windows XP and Vista have a feature called Direct Memory Access (DMA) which enables them to transfer data straight into Ram (memory) without having to use the processor. This is likely to be set ON in your computer but you ought to check. To do this go Start, Run and type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. At the screen which appears click on IDE/ATAPI controller, then on Primary IDE Channel, then on the Advanced tab. You should make sure that the transfer mode is set to "DMA if available"
How about Defragging? (putting things on the hard disk in a better order) Many times when you go to defragment a hard disk it says "Why bother ?" and when you do it anyway the disk looks as if it is in ragged pieces. So surely defragging can help get things back together and therefore faster. Hmmmm. Maybe. I have never felt an appreciable difference. So, perhaps "Why bother" is correct. Maybe once every 6 months would not come amiss. If your PC has suddenly and dramatically slowed this could be due to something much more sinister e.g. a virus or spyware. (but see above re. IE 7) So, make sure you have thoroughly checked for these nasties. See my pages on these subjects.
How about Register cleaners ? The Register is a vital part of the Windows system and it tells the computer where everything is and which programs work and which don't. As you use your computer this register (which is just a great big text file), gets bigger and bigger. Many programs which have been uninstalled may still be mentioned in there not just once but dozens of times. It is hardly surprising that people make money out of selling Register Cleaners and they do really work, clearing away dozens of unwanted items. But beware, in my experience they also clear away files that are required. They do not usually stop the PC working but can stop a specific program from working, which then has to be reinstalled (or you may be wise to do a Restore to the time before you started ignoring the golden rule (it ain't broke). But does a cleaner Register make you machine run faster - as you might reasonably expect. Well, my experience is about the same as Defragging (above). In the words of one comedian... '" not a lot".
Fed up with having to put in a password (or hit Esc) when XP starts? To prevent this go Start, Run and type Control userpasswords2 and click OK. Just untick "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer". If you have a password you will need to enter it now.
Internet connections. There is nothing much more frustrating than having a nice new machine and finding that it does not get to the things you want on the net fast enough for you. First of all, you MUST have a broadband connection and one that runs at least 2 megabytes per second. If you connect to the net there is NO POINT in being on a dialup connection. Apart from the frustration of trying to get anywhere on this amazing information resource it is actually dangerous to be on dialup. Why ? Because the security updates which are essential to your on line experience will take so long to download the chances are that your machine is unprotected. And as for looking at videos and downloading these wonderful Powerpoint slideshows that people send, you can forget it!
So, is there anything else that slows up your access, even if you have said goodbye to Dialup ? Personally I have found that Browsers vary in their speed. That is things like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Google's Chrome (for this you have to have Vista or XP with SP2). My own experience is that Chrome accesses site instantaneously, while others tend to drag their heels a little. I understand that this is due to the computer language in which it is written.
Analysis and Cleanup
If you wish to find out how well (or what) your PC is doing you can get a number of free tools to analyse it:
1. A useful analyser is called Belarc from www.belarc.com. Like the basic Sandra, this one is free. A friend ran Belarc on his machine and discovered a load of old antivirus stuff all fighting each other. He reported a noticeable increase in speed when he cleaned out all but one anti virus program Belarc will also list which Microsoft updates you have downloaded and which are missing.
2. The on line service at www.pcpitstop.com will check your machine out and give you a report. It also recommends that you download programs such as Registry Mechanic and an Optimizer (and these may cost money). But later tests have shown the Registry Cleaners and Defragging make little difference and CAN occasionally upset your machine. If your DO use a cleaner always back up your register. Sometimes I have found a Microsoft program has to be reinstalled after a cleanup. If this happens to you and haven't got the original disk you had better do a Restore immediately.
3. More Cleanup Programs. There are as many of these things around as there are butterflies in summer. Which just shows that many people have the same problem you have. Some are useful. Some are a rip off. So which to use? Fred Langa, who knows a thing or two about such things, recommends JV16 as a general program to clean up many aspects of a cluttered PC. There is a trial version but then it will cost about £15. Could be well worth it. See http://www.macecraft.com/jv16powertools2006/ It promised to be a Software Manager, Startup Manager, Registry Manager, Registry Cleaner, Registry Find and Replace , Registry Monitor, Registry Compactor, File Finder, File Cleaner, File Organizer, Duplicate File Finder, Disk Wiper, Start Menu Fixer, History Cleaner, Cookie Manager and Privacy Protector.
4. If you prefer Freeware then have a look at Ecleaner at http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm, which works along the same lines.
5. And my favourite cleanup program is Ccleaner from http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
A popular and useful page to start on is http://www.askbobrankin.com/make_windows_xp_run_faster.html. You will find that most of what he says also applies to other Windows programs .
So what things do really make that PC zing along ? here are some suggestions.
First, if you think there is nothing wrong with your PC, run the on line IOLO System Checkup. http://www.iolo.com/sm/freeapp/systemcheckup.aspx?brand=Default You will wonder how your PC is functioning at all ! See mine below. But, at least it does tell you what might be wrong before trying to sell you the product.
That Win 95 machine with 8Mb RAM that I mentioned at the beginning had just been reformatted and had the Windows program added. So, in my view the thing that slows down a machine mostly over time is the clutter of stuff that it accumulates.
Windows has never been very good at keeping itself clean and one of its dirtier habits is leaving stuff in the Register. On the net see Registry Cleaners The Register is just one great long text file which tells the computer exactly what to do. If you really feel you must use a registry cleaner then use the one from Ccleaner (free), which enables you to make a backup of the register.
Hard disk space
Windows requires room to move. You may think you are alright if you
still have 300 Mb of free space but, these days, I would say that is getting
tight. With XP, it makes huge (daily) backups of things in case you
want to Restore to a previous date. So it needs megabytes of free
space to do this, though the percentage of space allowed for this can be
reduced. When you add programs they often create temporary files which should
be (but are not always) deleted when the installation is complete. Also,
those Temporary Internet Files can accumulate at an alarming rate and don't
seem to help a lot, so get rid of them regularly. One of the worst
areas is often the sub folders of C:\windows\temporary Internet files.
These can accumulate and are not always deleted by the normal deletion
method. Right click the folder and you may find that there are still
megabytes of hidden files in there. In this case, to see them, you
will have to change your PC to Show Hidden Files (My Computer, Tools, Folder
Options, View, Show Hidden Files). Then when you go to delete these Temporary
Internet Files manually there are stark warnings about them being System
files and not to delete them. Rubbish ! Zap the lot.
If space is getting short you may decide to add another hard disk
(internally or externally):
Want to
fit another ? See
http://www.askbobrankin.com/add_a_second_hard_drive.html
If, when you right click My Computer, Properties, it says your hard disk has the FAT system this should be changed to the FAT32 system - see Windows Help . As well as giving you much more space it is also a much more efficient (faster) system. Hard disks with Windows XP can be converted to an even more efficient file system called NTFS. Again, look in Help.
When the machine runs out of memory (not hard disk space) it will do one of two things. Either it will freeze up or start to use an area of the hard disk called the Swap File. If it is doing this a lot you will see the hard disk light flicker a great deal. Having your PC move stuff in an out of the Swap file is a slow business. It is worth having a look at it. Go to Control Panel, System, Performance, Advanced and look at the Virtual Memory settings. It will probably say 'Let the computer decide the best settings' In ME and XP this will change 'dynamically' and you may get better performance by selecting 'Let me specify My Own Virtual Settings'. Set the minimum to the size of your RAM and the Maximum should relate to the size of your hard disk. So, if you have a lot of space you can set it to 4Gb or more. In XP this area allows many changes which can improve performance, mainly by simplifying all the fancy things that it is set up to do by default. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance and Adjust for best performance.
Wot's in Startup, Doc ?
Many people are very confused about the programs
displayed in Startup (via Msconfig) and there is a better place where they
can be seen much more clearly and full screen. Go Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, System information, doble click Software Environment
and click Startup Programs. Wait a second then, to see it full screen click
the small square, top right. You can't print this in a sensible format
so you are back to writing things down. Now you are in a position to search
for the ones you think are suspicious. You can see an index of many of the
programs at
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_detail_index.htm
or
http://www.sysinfo.org/
But I also recommend installing
Soluto for a more thorough analysis.
When you start up your machine you may find that it may load a number
of programs automatically. Naturally, all the program developers are
keen for their program to be easily accessible and many try to get them installed
at Startup. Some will be running in the background but many show up
as icons on the taskbar. Those on the right on the bottom line take
memory (resources), whereas those on the left do not. It is important to
reduce the number which are loaded at startup. In Windows 98 onwards
this is done by running the program Msconfig, Startup and unticking
unimportant things (see above). Do leave on your anti virus software
and firewall, Register checker and Systray but most of the rest can be unticked,
including things like Real Player and any Office Suite programs. If
you want to use these they can be called up when required - not sitting there
taking 'resources' and slowing up other processes
***************
So there are a few suggestions as to how to make the PC run a little faster. In the end, though, you may have to bite the bullet, backup your important data, ensure you have original disks for your programs and drivers for the Sound, Graphics, Modem, Printers and all other peripherals and reformat the hard disk and re-install the whole thing. It is a mammoth task these days but in my view it results in a greater increase in speed (on a well used machine) than all the other ideas put together.
Another idea might be just to sell it to someone else and get a nice new one ! This is not as unkind as it sounds. What to you may be an old, sluggish computer may be someone else's dream come true ! Think about it. You can get a new one with faster chip, more memory, bigger hard drive and Windows XP for under £400 these days. And your old one may be worth what... £125 ? It may be time to bite the bullet
Speeding your Internet Connection You MUST at least have a modern 56k modem ( see here) but getting Broadband is the best way to speed your internet connection. Prices for this have come down a lot. One solution which is said to improve internet browsing speeds is a program such as Onspeed. This can be downloaded from www.computeractive.co.uk/downloads but it does cost money.This may not work with AOL but should help people on other ISP's by compressing graphics which you are viewing 'on the fly'. I can't really recommend it from experience but some folk swear by it. But it does cost money.
n.b. If your machine seems sluggish occasionally make sure that it is not caused by your scheduled anti virus check going on in the background. Some, such as AVG are set to check the whole hard disk every time you start up. Totally unnecessary. Just rebooting the machine may bring it back up to speed.
Lastly, I get a lot of information from a site by Bob Rankin, who sits in California just trying to help people. To read his article on speeding a computer click here. Although this refers to an XP machine much of it applies to all Windows PCs
In fact I have just spent an age trying all of the above ideas to speed up a 200Mhz PC with Windows 98 loaded. In the end the only thing that did the trick was reformatting it.
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