I fucking hate when my computer gets slow. My old computer was so slow that it would take nearly 20 seconds just to open up Firefox. That’s just unacceptable. I attempted to speed up my old computer, but nothing would work — it was just too old.
But I have a newer computer and it’s much better. Occasional, though, it will get a little slow. But I’ve figured out a few methods of improving the speed of it that may help other people.
Here is what I have learned and found on how to keep my computer healthy and fast:
1. Cleanse Your Computer
I use CCleaner to do this. This wicked little program will cleanse your computer of your old internet browsers’ temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history, as well as cleans out your Recycle Bin and other old files from other programs that you have on your computer. It will also allow you to scan your registry and clean up registry keys that are missing, corrupt, and that are no longer in use. Give this a try first and see if it makes a difference.
2. Don’t Install Too Many Programs
Every time you install a program, that program registers itself into the computers registry and, of course, installs itself on your computer, which can take up a lot of space, which your computer will than have to load into RAM every time you open up that program. So, try not to install a million programs. And try to find programs that will do a bunch of things that would other wise require you to install 3 other programs to do what that one single program can do.
3. Find Online Equivalents
If you can find online equivalents of programs, then try to go for it as this will eliminate the need to install more programs and will help keep your computer clean. For example, instead of installing MS Office or even OpenOffice, you could use Google Docs for your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. It may not be as advanced as MS Office or the others, but it’s free, easy to use, doesn’t require you to install it, and it makes it really easy to share you files with other people.
4. Find Portable Versions
This is my favourite tip, for three reasons: 1. You don’t have to go through the installation procedure for programs; 2. Portable versions don’t register themselves in your computer’s registry, so it has no effect on your computer; and 3. You can take the portable versions anywhere, like on your USB drives, iPods or whatever. You can almost get portable version of any app at PortableApps; any other hard-to-find ones, check on ThePirateBay or Google.com. All my apps are portable: Firefox, Chrome, Photoshop, uTorrent, CCleaner, ImgBurn, VLC Media Player — everything. I love it! And I have them all on my USB drive so I can take them anywhere.
5. Disabling Programs On Startup
When you start your computer up does there show a long list of program icons at the bottom right of your taskbar? Even if there aren’t, you probably still have programs running in the background.
To disable these, go to Start -> Run -> Type in “msconfig” -> Click on the Startup tab -> deselect the ones you don’t want to start up when you turn your computer on -> Hit Apply, then Close. It’ll ask you to restart, but you don’t absolutely have to (but you probably should so that changes take effect).
To figure out which programs you don’t need running in the background (which is most), check where that program’s located (under the Command label) and if it’s a program you recognize then you know it’s probably safe to deselect it, if not, then check out the ProcessLibrary and search for that running program to learn what it’s for and if it’s safe to deselect it.
6. Reinstalling The Operating System
If nothing will do it for ya, then this could be your last hope. This will give you the chance to start fresh. Download your OS from ThePirateBay (make sure it’s an image file: .iso., .bin/.cue, etc.) (I’ve use this one on three computers, which is Windows XP SP3 and it shouldn’t ask for a serial or require activating; Windows 7 is here), burn it with ImgBurn (a small image burning app), stick the disk into the CD-Rom, and follow the onscreen instructions. Make sure you backup any files you wish to keep.
7. Bonus! Other ways worth mentioning that may help:
- Ensuring your computer is adware and virus free. I recommend Commodo (free) or AVG Free. For getting rid of adware, I recommend Ad-Aware. (Read the disclaimer!).
- Defragging your hard drive.
- Installing more RAM. Note: Windows XP’s RAM usage maxes out at about 3GB despite being able to have 4 GB of it — it’s a limitation of Windows XP. Windows Vista and 7 don’t have this limitation, and can have, like 128+GB of RAM (although I don’t think there exists a motherboard that can even house that much).
- ReadyBoost (if you’re using Windows 7 or Vista).
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any problems that may arrise from your downloading or installing programs from the internet, including The Pirate Bay. Do so at your own risk (there isn’t really much of risk, I’m just letting you know that I’m not responsible, just in case you mess something up).
