10 WAYS TO MAKE SYSTEM FASTER

10 WAYS TO MAKE SYSTEM FASTER

If there is one operating system that slows with age, it is Windows. Whether it be XP or Vista or any other historical version, slowness persists. Here’s how I make sure I keep my PC running fast and flawless.

1. 1. Startup items – Use the “msconfig” command to open up msconfig and under the “startup” tab uncheck items that you don’t want to start up automatically. Believe me, there’s a lot of it which you don’t need and it always keep running in the background bringing the computer to its knees.
   2. Stop unwanted services – Again, in the “Services” tab of “msconfig” check “Hide all Microsoft services”. Now you’ll only see services installed by third-party programs. Make sure you know what you are doing and uncheck the ones which you do not want.
   3. Defrag - Once in a while just defrag your harddrive partitions. I needn’t explain why. Just do it anyways. I do it every week.
   4. Prefetch - The prefetch folder stores data related to various applications so that they can start faster. However this slows up the boot of the PC itself. So click the “Start” button > Run > Type “prefetch” , click OK and delete everything in the prefetch folder.
   5. Pagefile - For optimal performance it is important that your pagefile is configured correctly. Keep the pagefile on teh system partition to a minimum (I keep it to 2MB). I then create a pagefile on the second partition of the system and make it one-and-a-half the size of RAM my computer has. This makes the pagefile accessible faster.
   6. Disk Cleanup – Clean the clutter. The less the clutter, the more the free space the better the defragmentation and overall harddrive performance.
   7. Uninstall unwanted crap – Those programs that you installed from the CD that came with the magazine – get rid of it if you are not using it. It bloats the registry, the Start menu and takes up space.
   8. Create a new profile – Once in a while it’s just easier to start over with a new user profile on your machine. Copy your data over to a location of your choice, dump your previous profile and start with a new one. You’d be surprised how fast your machine feels.
   9. Use windows classic theme – With all the animation, flashy themes etc. there’s a lot of overhead as far as performance is concerned. Keep it simple – use the classic theme which looks graceful and professional.
   10. Disable data compression – If you are after saving more space so that you can keep those mp3s, buy a new USB harddrive. Disable data compression on your system drive. It is taxing on the processor to decompress every compressed file and serve the requests and then compress the new files created.

I’m sure there’s a lot more tips and tricks there but sticking to these basics is really helpful. Only after you are through with the above should you try any registry tweaks or overclocking. What do you do to keep you machine up to speed?