You switch on your PC and you expect something really fast. Everything should be up and running before you can go to your fridge and back. You click on a shortcut and it will automatically pop-up in your desktop and do the things you want in your favorite software. Yet, the exact opposite happens: to start your PC you still have to wait more than 15 minutes, clicking on a shortcut will drag your PC, and as you use more software, your PC really gets slow in transferring from one program to another, and the other programs may stop responding.
Don’t worry; there are ways to make your PC faster. Tweak your PC a little bit and it will be faster, especially in starting your PC when you switch it on.
The best thing you need to remember is your PC will run faster if you have a good amount of RAM. The higher the RAM, the faster your PC would be. If your PC is more than two years old, it would be time for you upgrade the RAM in your PC, and consult your local technician on what specs you can actually install in your PC. RAM comes in 128M, 256M, 512M and 1G RAM. If you are using your PC for simple office work, an additional 256M is not bad. But if you’re dealing with games and graphics all day long, upgrade to 512M or 1G if your budget allows. Make sure to ask your technician if your PC motherboard can handle the upgrade.
Next is to protect your hard drive from any unwanted files. Always review the files you are about to download. Corrupted files will definitely ruin your PC altogether. It will slow down your PC and eventually destroy it. Have good antivirus software in your PC at all times. Review your programs and uninstall all that are not useful. Some programs can’t be uninstalled in the start-up page but you can do that by going to your control panel and go to add/remove programs. There are programs hidden in your computer that you don’t see everyday.
Protect your hard drive from being scratched. Defragging your PC every week is good in itself but potentially dangerous to your PC. Defragging your PC too much might scratch your hard disk. If your operating system is Windows XP, instead of clicking on defrag, select analyze and your PC will advise you if its time to defrag or not.
Lastly is speeding up your PC’s start up window. The reason your PC is very slow to start is the various programs that automatically starts when your PC is switched on. You can disable these with a very simple trick: click start and go to run and type in “msconfig.” A window pops up and when it does, go to the startup tab. The tab will show you all the programs that automatically start every time you switch it on. Uncheck all the programs you really don’t need to run automatically and reboot your PC. You will notice a faster PC once you’ve completed the reboot.
Great post. I think MSConfig is an very under utilized tool that most PC noobies don’t know about.
Regarding the startup times. I always thought that someone should do an applications that loads your startup programs asynchronously. That way the desktop becomes responsive immediately and you the launcher loads each startup program in the background.
Comment by Joe Cotellese — May 19, 2008 @ 7:07 pm