Computer Performance and Stability Tips
Happy New Year! To help you have a more successful New Year, we offer these 14 tips on improving the performance of your computer. If you are unsure about how to follow the tip, or our instructions do not match what you see on your PC, then find out more information before proceeding.
Tip1: Always leave at least 25% free hard drive space, at very minimum 10%
Why: A hard drive that is nearly full has to work much harder than usual to manage files. Also, during some operations, more memory is required than you have. When that occurs, the operating system uses something called virtual memory, using some hard drive space as temporary memory thus slowing you down.
How: Double-click on “My Computer” and then right-click on each hard drive and choose “Properties”. This will display the size of the drive and how much free space is available. If you need to free up space and are unsure what to remove from the hard drive, go to Tip 3 perform a disk cleanup. Often you can browse thru the directories on your PC and find lots of old files to delete, like pictures or documents you no longer need. Remember not to delete program files directly as this will usually cause you to receive annoying pop-up error windows later due to the missing files – to remove a program, go thru the Add/Remove Programs window (Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs).
Tip 2: Empty your Recycle Bin
Why: Your recycle bin holds items you have deleted. If you don’t want these items, they are simply wasting disk space.
How: On your Desktop, right click on your Recycle Bin. Choose Empty Recycle Bin. If you only want to remove some of the items in the Recycle Bin, hold down CTRL, and then click each item that you want to remove. When you have finished selecting the items that you want to remove, on the File menu, click Delete.
Tip 3: Do a Weekly Disk Cleanup
Why: Disk Cleanup helps free up space on your hard drive. It scans your drive and shows you temporary files, Internet cache files and unnecessary program files that you can safely delete. You choose which files to delete.
How: Choose Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. Select the disk you want to clean.
Tip 4: Defragment (defrag) the hard drive at least monthly
Why: During day-to-day computer operations, files are constantly being written to and taken off the hard drive. When a file is removed, there is a blank segment or gap in its place. When a file needs to be written to the hard drive, the file is placed in the first available gap. If the file is bigger than the gap, then part of the file is written to the first gap with more information that tells where the next gap is. A large file can be written to as many as 20 gaps. When the file is read, the hard drive reads each section of the file independently. When it has to read a file that was divided among 20 gaps, the drive must read it 20 times to get the whole file read. This uses up many resources and shortens the life of the hard drive. Defragmenting the drive rearranges it and consolidates files, making the task of reading the drive simpler and faster.
How: Complete a Disk Cleanup first (see Tip 3). Then choose Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter. Choose the drive to be defragged near the top of the window. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, click on the Analyze button to see how fragmented the drive is. If you see some red sections in the display rectangle, then run disk defragmenter. This process could require several hours to complete.
Tip 5: Take programs or shortcuts out of startup
Why: Over time, programs and drivers are installed and uninstalled. Many old programs and drivers that are not being used are still running in the background, slowing the system down and causing lockups.
How: For Windows 2000 and XP Pro, right-click on Start button and choose Explore. Click on the main local hard drive and choose Documents and Settings>user (such as Administrator, your name, all users)>Start Menu>Programs>Startup. Remove the shortcuts in the Startup Folder that you do not need. Other startup items are found in Services, which is accessed by going to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools> and Services. Stop and disable any services not needed. If you are not totally sure what the service is, then don’t disable it.
Tip 6: Delete Temp files
Why: Even though there may be plenty of room on the hard drive, files with the extension of .tmp hog an area of the hard drive known as the swap area. Deleting tmp files will make the system run faster. Tmp files accumulate every time a program is shut down prematurely, such as in system locks, when the computer is turned off improperly, or when you select End Task.
How: To do this, go to Start>(Search or Find)>Files and Folders, and in the file name part type *.tmp , then on the keyboard hit Ctrl-A (Hold down Ctrl key and hit the A key at the same time) to highlight all the .tmp files found. Then hit the delete key.
Tip 7: Lower the amount of colors the system displays
Why: When the colors are set to high such as High Color (16 Bit) or True Color (32 Bit), your processor and video card has to work with much more information to produce a result that may not make a difference to what you see.
How: With the mouse in the middle of the desktop, (no programs running or all programs minimized), right-click and choose Properties and choose the Settings tab. In the colors drop down list, choose a lower color. Most programs still look good when the color is set to 256 colors. If you find it unappealing, return your settings to High Color or True Color to retain the appearance you prefer.
Tip 8: Clean the Desktop
Why: Remove all unnecessary icons from the desktop and shortcuts from the desktop and the quick launch bar. If you have shortcuts for CD drives, Windows will check for their contents every time it loads and cause a delay.
Tip 9: Install the Latest Drivers for Video, Motherboard, Sound, Network
Why: Even a brand new PC may not have the most up-to-date drivers with it. Drivers are always being improved.
How: Go to the website of the device vendor, download driver, read instructions and install. Check every six months for new versions. The vendor of your PC may also be able to help with this.
Tip 10: Increasing the performance of individual programs
Why: Some programs are more important than others, and you can tell your computer to use more resources when it runs.
How: You can increase the speed of a program by setting the priority of the program’s process thread to either High or Real-time. Use Task Info (in Win 9x/ME) or Task Manager (in Windows 2000 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del). In XP, press Ctrl+Shft+Esc to open Task Manager, go to Processes tab, right click the process and change its priority. Do not go overboard on this or your system may become very unresponsive.
Tip 11: Remove sound events
Why: If you remove the sound events, your operations will get faster and are less likely to hang.
How: To do so, go to Control Panel » Sounds and Audio Devices » Sounds tab, and then change the Sound Scheme to No Sounds.
Tip 12: Use Plain Desktop and/or Deactivate Active Desktop
Plain Desktop
Why: Remove the desktop background image and set it to None. This will save some memory.
How: With all programs minimized or not running, right-click and choose Properties and on the Background tab, choose None.
Deactivate Active Desktop
Why: Unless you run stock market price tickers on your desktop or some such, deactivate Active Desktop to save memory. If you have enabled Active Desktop just to enable a GIF or JPG file as the background, then convert the file to a BMP file and set that as the wallpaper without Active Desktop.
How: With all programs minimized or not running, right-click and choose Properties and on the Background tab, choose None.
Tip 13: Blank home page in Internet Explorer
Why: Set your home page to a blank one so that it loads faster. This will make your Web browser open faster, but it won’t speed up your PC.
How: This is done via Tools » Internet Options » General » Use Blank.
Tip 14: Disable Smooth Fonts or Other Special Effects
Why: Each new version of an operating system offers more and more bells and whistles meant to make the computer more ‘helpful’, but that also uses more system resources.
How: Right click on the desktop and select Properties > Appearance tab > Effects button. Uncheck / Change the settings (there are several) for the ones meant to give the user a more ‘pleasant’ experience, like the Fade effect.
Joe
Marketing
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