How to speed up your computer

[SIZE="1"]First thread[/SIZE]

Hooray!
Anyway...lets get down to business.

Q)My computer is slowing down! Why? How do I fix it?

A) This can be caused by a large number of things

-Scan your computer for Spyware. If you need help on what to use to scan for spyware, try Spybot:Search and Destroy
To avoid having spyware come back, be careful about what you download and don't visit sites that aren't safe. Generally, unsafe sites have lots of popups and ads.

-Defragment your hard drive (And do so every month or 2)

-Clear useless files and/or programs that you don't use anymore

-If you haven't cleaned out your computer in a while (if ever), open up the side and blow the dust off the components and vacuum the dust that falls to the bottom of your case. Then use canned air to blow any caked in dust that may have accumulated in your CPU's heatsink. Then suck the dust you blew out.
How does dust slow your computer? Processors since Pentium 4 throttle (lower "ghz") when they reach a certain temperature in order to prevent burning.
Sometimes the dust buildup causes so much heat that your computer can automatically shut down (thanks HiiEN)

-Use disk cleanup (Right click your C drive in "My computer" and select "Properties"
There should be an option for disk cleanup.)


-CCleaner is a great program to use (Thanks Greg)

-Check your disk for errors (Thanks Lyssa)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using...kbtip.mspx

Quotes galore.

 Spoiler

start>run>msconfig
and then you can disable any programs you don't need your computer to automatically run on startup, it helps restarts go alot faster.

If you use a laptop like I do, a notebook cooler is a godsend. It prevents the components from getting too hot by circulating air around it.

Originally Posted by Darklai
Virtual Memory
Virtual memory acts as extra RAM for your computer, used off your hard drive.
My Computer -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintence -> System -> Advance -> Performance [Settings...] -> Advanced Tab -> Virtual Memory [Change]
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e75/Si.../guide.jpg <- Image of the box

Depending on the free space of your HD, how much to set. Your computer will give you a recommended amount at the bottom of the box, which is what it most likely has allocated. If your computer has the HD space, double the recommended amount as your min, and multiply that amount by 1.5 to set the max amount. Once finished, press OK.

Also, remember... A clean desktop is a happy desktop. The less items on there, the faster it will be when you minimize and switch windows.

1. This is just a quick tip for those who want to Zakum but are afraid they're going to lag out. Right before Zakum, I suggest turning off your computer and giving it a few minutes before you reboot. That way, the RAM will clear itself and you won't have weird things hogging your memory. The next step is up open up Task Manager and kill the 'explorer.exe' task. At first, you might be a little freaked and want to kill me because your desktop disappears. But don't worry, you can fix that. Killing the explorer.exe task will make it so your CPU uses about 1% of its power. Very handy when you're scared of lag, and your computer is going to run like the wind. After your Zakum run, just fire up Task manager again by using the 'Ctrl+Alt+Del' combo in Windows XP or the 'Ctrl+Shift+Esc' combo in Vista. Select 'File'>'New Task' and type 'explorer.exe'.

2. Another tip. Instead of using the MSConfig tool, I prefer using a little program called WinPatrol (which you can find here). This is a really nifty program that not only gives you the power to stop certain programs from running at startup, you can do many other things with the tool. You can use it as a task manager and see all the tasks which are running (without having the complicated Task manager Processes nonsense), and you can also choose to delay the startup of some programs. For example, if I want my chat client to run at startup but don't want it hogging my memory space when everything else is starting up, I can set the delay for my chat protocol to start a minute after everything else has loaded. This is an extremely useful tool and I think it's much better than MSConfig.

3. On the note of Virus' and Spyware, I suggest that you buy a few products. Virus' and Spyware are the main reasons most computers are really slow. I know, free things are always good, but some commercial products are really much better than the free products. I suggest getting NOD32 and/or Kaspersky. Both will rip your wallet apart, but I personally love both of those programs. If you feel like you want to stick with free programs, that's also fine. I just suggest getting a good Firewall (I prefer Comodo Pro Free as opposed to Zonealarm.)

When you're scanning your computer, update the virus database to the latest version, and then reboot your computer. As you're rebooting, press F8 or F12 to get into a thing called Safe Mode. (The button you press varies, but most of the time there will be a screen telling you what to press.) In Safe Mode, a lot of the program features are disabled, which means that virus' are isolated making it easier for your Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware program to detect. Hope this helps.

Here's another post for the quotes galore;

Microsoft Bootvis.

In short, Microsoft Bootvis makes your computer run faster by gathering the scattered boot files in your hard drive.

This url prodives more explanation and a simple guide on how to use Bootvis. Or if you don't feel like reading, graphs and all that jazz, download it, go to Trace and click on Optimize System. Download here

Hopefully, your computer will be faster after you do these things.

Taking suggestions for more things to do to speed up computers