Optimization Tips

How To Speed Up Your PC

The very first thing you should do is perform a system reboot to get your PC in a fresh state. Once your computer is up and running again, hit the key combination Control + Alt + Delete to load TaskManager. Now click on processes at the top to load a view of all the running processes on your system. Now click on the Memory Usage heading to sort all of the aforementioned processes by how much memory they are using (this is commonly called RAM, or random access memory). If there are any processes using more than 30-50 megabytes of memory and you don't know what they are, right click on them and choose Kill Process. Now use your system a bit and see if this made a difference. If it did, prevent this process from starting on system boot.

Another optimization tip you can try is to use Task Manager to locate any application that is using too much of your CPU (central processing unit) resources. Open Task Manager like before but this time organize the processes by clicking on the CPU heading. If there are any processes taking more than 10-20 percent of the CPU and they shouldn't be, kill them too. Don't forget that the system idle process is a normal part of the operating system so don't worry about it.

If you want to modify which processes get to run on start, I would highly recommended buying a product like RegCure which lets you easily view processes that run on start and turn them off or delete them entirely. If you don't want RegCure, then you can use the tool MSConfig.

Another great way to free up system resources is to delete applications that you no longer need. The proper way to accomplish this is to use control panel's Add/Remove Programs application. Run control panel, choose Add/Remove Programs. Now you can look through the list of all the installed applications on your machine and choose which ones you no longer use.

How To Get More Disk Space

Microsoft has shipped a few cool utilities that help you free up necessary disk space. The first, called Disk Cleanup, will look through your entire computer and allow you to remove any unused files. If you run this application often it can help keep your free disk space high and thus help maintain your computer's performance. Run Disk Cleanup through the Accessories/System tools start menu listing. Then choose which drives you are interested in then choose OK. You will now be presented with a list of all the files that are used infrequently or not at all.

Scan For Drive Erros

Sometimes your hard disk can accumulate damage in the form of bad sectors. These can impact how fast the operating system can retrieve data from your hard disk. To handle this problem, use the Error Checking application by right clicking the drive you want to scan and choosing Properties/Tools/Error Check/Check Now.