9 Tips & Tools to Make Your Computer Run Faster

A few months ago, my PC took over 10 minutes to start up. Now it just takes about a minute. Want to know how I did it? Here’s how:
1. Upgrade Your RAM
Yeah, the most obvious tip but people hardly upgrade it. RAM these days is very cheap, especially if you buy it through Amazon or eBay. When I checked Amazon, the price of 1 GB RAM was around $20-$30.
2. Get Rid of Unneeded Software
Most PCs come shipped with unneeded software. Uninstall all of them. I’m sure there are better alternatives to those software. For example, my PC came shipped from hp with lots of bloatware such as HP Image Zone, Norton AntiVirus 2004, Record Now! CD & DVD Burning software etc. I uninstalled all of them and replaced them with better software like Picasa and Nero.
3. Keep Only One Browser
This is part of the getting rid of unneeded applications but I decided to separate it because so many people have 3, or even 4 browsers installed on their computer. I used to do this; I used to have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Now I only have Mozilla Firefox. Yes, I even removed Internet Explorer!
Now you might be wondering how do I update Windows without Internet Explorer, right? Here’s how I do it, and you can too: To update Windows from within Firefox, just download the IE Tab add-on. Using that plugin, you can access IE only sites like Windows Update with ease.
4. Get an All-in-One Solution for Your IM Needs
I’m guessing that most of you have at least 2 IM clients installed. Uninstall all of them. Instead, get Digsby. Digsby is an All-in-One solution for your social media and IM needs.
5. Limit the Programs that Start Automatically
The programs that load automatically after your Windows starts can severely cripple the load time. To reduce the number of programs that start auto-load, download Revo Uninstaller. Disable the autoloading of applications carefully though. The rule of thumb is that if you don’t know what the app does, don’t disable it.
6. Delay the Startup of Your Remaining Autoloading Programs
Even after you’ve disabled the autoloading of most programs, there still is room to improve. The thing is that when your PC starts up, all your startup apps are fighting to run at the same time, which creates a bottleneck. To mitigate this effect, you can delay the launch of each of your startup program by a few seconds or minutes. Startup Delayer is an awesome app that does this.
7. Tweak Windows’s Display & Animation Settings
Right-click on “My Computer” > Go to the “Advanced” tab and click on “Settings” under “Performance”. Now uncheck the checkbox next to “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing”. Disabling them won’t make your PC behave quicker per se but it will fasten the minimizing and maximizing of windows.
8. Disable Desktop Shortcuts
Shortcuts on your desktop are a waste. Not only do they increase your computer startup time, they also are an inefficient way to open stuff. There are more efficient ways to access applications, such through the Start Menu, the Quick Launch menu, or through software such as Launchy. To hide desktop shortcuts, right-click on your desktop, go to “Arrange Icons by” and uncheck “Show Desktop Icons” by clicking on it.
9. Check for Malware, Spyware, Viruses Regularly
The most important tip I can give you is to 1) have a firewall, 2) have an anti-spyware app, 3) have an anti-virus app, and 4) Regularly scan for viruses, spyware etc. If there’s a virus or some spyware slowing down your computer then none of the above tips can help you. You’ll first have to disinfect your PC. I use Ad-Aware 2008 as my anti-spyware app and Norton Internet Security 2009 as my firewall and anti-virus app.
If you follow the nine tips that I wrote above, I can guarantee that your PC will run 2x or even 3x faster.
PS: You can use Boot Timer to measure how much time your PC takes to startup fully.
You can catch Ruchir Chawdhry at TechVivo where he blogs about gadgets, software, online tools, windows tips & tricks and other such things that’ll increase your productivity. If you have some tips to share, write a guest article and promote your site.

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15 Tips To Speed Up Your Computer

Finding ways to speed up your computer is the most important thing you could do as a computer user. This might save your computer from being thrown out the window, or even smashed up with a hammer. This is how far people get pushed when computers don’t do what they want them to do. It is one of those annoying little things that you have to do all the time, maintenance jobs, just to speed up your computer.
When you have a slow computer and you are trying to work on it, you can easily get frustrated to the point of doing something drastic! Hey but calm down! I have to tell you something truthfully. It’s your fault that your computer is slow because you do not perform computer maintenance on it. It is your responsibility to speed up your computer and make it run at its optimal performance. Don’t go blaming the computer because it is slow, follow these steps below and fix your problem now!

15 tips on how to speed up your computer

Delete unwanted files

When I say to delete unwanted files, I do not mean you should go around your computer and delete any file you do not want. In this case, I’m talking about the files that you have created yourself, and are totally aware of what they are. For example if you created a Microsoft word document and you no longer need it, and never will, then I suggest you delete that file. This is the kind of junk that clogs up your computer. You have to ask yourself, “Do you really need it?”
Files that you have created such as documents and image files can be safely deleted by going to the file on your computer, right clicking on its, and choosing delete from the menu. Keeping your computer or organized and junk free, is a great way to speed up your computer.

Delete hidden junk files

Hidden or temporary files are created without the user knowing. All you have to do is open files, browse the Internet, install programs, and more files are created in the background. There is so much happening in the background that most people are unaware of and do not know that this area exists.This is something you are going to have to learn about if you want to speed up your computer.

Remove unwanted programs

Are you one of those people that constantly download programs and install them onto your computer? Every software program you have on your computer is taking up space. It is not only taking up space, but it might also be checking for updates and connecting to the Internet. It also might be starting up when your computer starts up. There are so many good reasons why you should remove unwanted programs.
After you have removed the software program that you did not want, make sure you restart your computer to complete the process.

Defrag to speed up your computer

When you install programs and save files on your computer, the files are automatically saved to the closest available space on your hard drive. This means that files for your programs are fragmented if your hard disk drive is not organized correctly. This is why we need to de-frag our computer to place the files back together and to place the most frequently used files at the front for easy access.
You should defrag your computer at least once a week if you use your computer often. If you do not use your computer that often, then you can defrag less often.
If you are using the Windows disk defragmenter which is located at start menu>accessories>system tools>disk defragmenter, you can choose to “analyze” first before you choose defrag. This feature will tell you if you need to perform this task or not.

Disk CleanUp

Disk CleanUp comes free with Windows and will get rid of the rest of the junk files that you have missed. Go to start menu>accessories>system tools>disk cleanup.

Always pay for a virus program!

By all means, you can waste your time trying to find the best free anti-virus program, but do you really want to risk it.
Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with a free anti-virus program. In fact I will recommend Avast as my number one freebie. However, even though this proved to be secure, it is safer to have the extra security features that come with the paid versions. Now days most new antivirus also come with a firewall that if they do not, Windows provides a perfectly good firewall for free.
Over the past 25 years I have tested at least 10 paid virus programs and have ended up with Avast running on my computer. It does not annoy me, it is not asked be stupid questions that I cannot answer, and is not make me deal with difficult settings. I like a program that just does its job.
Please see my top virus removal software.
If you do not have a virus program installed you are risking everything! Sometimes your computer will gradually slow down when it gets a virus, and other times it will be crashing within minutes. Is that really worth the hassle?

Avoid multitasking with large programs

If you’re anything like me, you will have 20 Windows open at the same time, with your Internet browser having at least 15 tabs opened as well. Yes I know it is crazy and I’m trying to reform. I have a lot of experience in multitasking and have realized that some programs cannot be open at the same time as others. For example you should not be running a large program like Photoshop or Pinnacle video studio, while running a virus scan at the same time. We all know what the right thing to do is, but we just can’t help ourselves.

Warning: Working on 20 programs at the same time is not good if you are trying to speed up your computer!

Use an external hard drive for backup

Nowadays there is no excuse for not backing up your files! It is unbelievably cheap to buy an external hard drive or even a portable USB flash drive to store backup files on. Both these portable devices are simple to connect to the computer via a USB plug. Once connected, you will find the device if you go to your start menu and then press on computer. For older versions of Windows it will be called my computer.
You can use these devices to store all of your files on, leaving your computer clean and free to work on.

Update programs regularly

Every program on your computer must be updated regularly. If you do not do this, you will find that you will get problems, guaranteed! Even Windows itself needs updating, along with any other applications and games, and even hidden device driver software.
To see if your device drivers are performing properly you can go to the Control Panel, click on system, advanced settings, and then you will find device manager under the hardware tab.
Here is an article: what are device drivers and why do I need them?
I use a program called Driver Finder. Most computers need a program like this because having outdated driver software on your computer can cause horrendous problems. Having the wrong driver software on your computer has been known to cause black screens, blue screens, and total computer crashes.
To find out if Windows needs updating, simply go to your start menu and type in the search section, “Windows update”. A link will appear in the menu, click on it to see your details. See the screen shot below.

Upgrade your computer memory

When you buy a new computer now days it should come with a minimum of 2 GB of memory installed. This should be okay for a year or two, however as times change, you will eventually need to upgrade your memory.
Older computers are in an even worse situation. People are using old computers to do new things that these computers were not made for. Upgrading your computer memory and increasing your hard drive size can help speed up an old computer.
When upgrading your computer memory in order to speed up your computer, there are two options, to do it yourself or get someone else to do it for you. If you are seriously hopeless with technical stuff, like my friend Deb, I would suggest you take it to a computer store for the upgrade.
If you are willing to give it a go you can buy computer memory online (making sure you have the right type) and do it yourself.
Please see this article: upgrade computer memory
That was 10 detailed tips on how to speed up your computer and now here is five more.

5 more quick tips on how to speed up your computer:

1. Keeping a clean computer means a faster computer. Therefore you should always organize your computer files in a way that makes them easy to find and also easy to backup.
2. When you boot into your computer it is not only the Windows operating system that is starting, as most people have many other programs starting at the same time. To speed up this process you need to disable startup programs.
3. A great way to speed up your computer is not to overwork it in the first place. For example most people have five or six programs open at the same time and they really aren’t using all of them. Close down programs you are not using.
4. Keep up with your computer maintenance as it is will speed up your computer just by doing this.
5. Another good way to speed up your computer is to disable automatic updates on certain programs. Did you know that programs are checking the Internet every time you start your computer to see if they need to be updated or not?I am not talking about disabling Windows automatic updates as it is really all the other little programs that are doing the damage. If you have a notification icon in the notification area you can usually right click on it to get to the settings and disable the updates that way.

Install a program to do it all for you! Speed up your computer!

A software program will not upgrade your memory but it will clean out all the junk files, delete unused registry keys, and even remind you to update. When buying a program to perform computer maintenance for you, definitely make sure it involves a one-off payment. I do not recommend buying a computer maintenance program that has to be paid for yearly. This is going beyond a joke!

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Speed Up Your Computer – Turn off Windows Search Indexing Service

Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 has a Windows Search Indexing service installed and enabled that allows the operating system to search certain places quickly finding files or programs in a flash. In order to search certain locations on your computer quickly the Windows Search indexing service indexes the contents of each location in advance and stores them in memory to speed up it’s search. This can take up a lot of memory and resources and will certainly affect your computers performance. It might even be indexing locations that you never even intend to search for files on. This is why you need to either disable the Windows Search indexing service or modify its process to do minimal work.
Of course you do not need to alter any settings for the Windows Search indexing service if you have not recognized any performance problems on your computer. However if you want to speed up your computer, this is just one of the tasks you can do.

Changing the settings for your Windows Search Indexing service?

You have three options if you want to speed up your computer:

• Turn off Windows Search indexing for one particular location such as a hard drive.
• To reduce the number of locations that are being indexed on your computer.
• Disable the Windows search indexing service altogether.

If you want to turn off the Windows Search Indexing service for a particular drive or location:

1.  Open up My Computer by choosing Computer from the start menu.
2. Right-click on your hard drive you want to change the indexing options for.
3.  From the menu choose Properties. See the screen shot below.

4.  Untick the box at the bottom that says Index the drive for faster searching.
5.  Click  on the OK button and the Windows search indexing service will be turned off for that hard drive. See the screen shot below.

How to disable the Windows Search Indexing completely for all locations:

1.  Go to the Start Menu .
2.  Type services.msc in the search box. As you are typing you will see items appear in the menu. This is because it is being indexed and can be searched quickly.
3.  Scroll-down to find the Indexing Service which is called Windows search and double-click it.

Windows Search Indexing service

4.  Press on  the Stop button to Stop the indexing service.

5.  Under Startup type press on the drop down arrow to see choices.

6.  Choose Disabled.
After disabling and turning off the Windows Indexing Service, you will still be able to use the Windows search but it will work more slowly than with the indexing enabled.
Here is a video that will tell you more about Windows indexing and how you can turn it off or disable it.

How to change your Windows Search Indexing service – indexed locations:

Instead of disabling the Windows Search Indexing you can reduce the number of locations that are being indexed.
1.  Go to the start menu and choose control panel from the menu.
2.  Double click on the Indexing options icon. See the screen shot below.

3.  The Windows indexing options will appear. Click on the location you want to change. See the screen shot below.
4.  Click on the Modify button.

5.  The indexed locations will show. Click on Show all locations button. See the screen shot below.

6.  Now you can see all the locations that are indexed by the Windows Search indexing service. Untick the box next to the locations that you do not want to index.

7.  Click on Ok when you are finished. The locations you un-tick will not be indexed.

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7 Tweaks to Make Your Computer Faster

The speed of the computer you use can have a great deal of impact on how fast your internet is, both negatively and positively. If you need to enjoy faster broadband internet access, aside going with the right ISP it is important that you also have an active and properly optimized computer. This article will be giving you a list of some basic, but important changes you should make that will have a significant impact on your computer and internet speed.
1. Reduce Desktop Icons: A lot of computers are cluttered and this will not help as it will make the computers slower. Just compare your computer to when you just bought it and you will notice a great difference in speed and effectiveness. If you know you can’t be formatting your hard drive every time it is important to do your best to reduce the number of icons on your desktop to the barest minimum.
2. Uninstall Unnecessary Applications: How many applications do you have installed on your computer? 50? 100? 200? How many do you use on a regular basis? It probably would be less than 20. Just take a look at this and you will see how much you have been losing in terms of speed, effectiveness and productivity by having all those applications on your computer. Every application you install has a great deal of impact on your computer and it also uses memory and space which means there will be less resources for your main applications. Take a look at your computer now, remove every unnecessary applications and you will notice an increase both in computer and internet speed.
3. Take Care of Outdated Software: It is one thing to have your computer system cluttered with unnecessary applications and it is another thing to have your computer filled with outdated software. The downside of a system with many unnecessary applications is waste of memory space but the downside of a system with many outdated software is insecurity and the possibility of being hacked. You will be doing a great deal to protect your computer by ensuring you keep all your software applications updated.
4. Use a Robust and Latest Antivirus: Just like sickness is to man, virus is the worst enemy of a computer. You won’t be able to get the best from your computer if you’re just using any kind of antivirus that pleases you and it is also important to be updating your antivirus regularly if you’re using the right one because viruses are always developing and a 2005 antivirus won’t be able to prevent your system against a 2011 virus.
5. Always Shut down your Computer Properly: Aside from your system being infected by a virus another thing that can have a major effect on your computer is if your system files become corrupt. There are several things that can cause your system files to corrupt but the most common of them all is you not shutting down your computer properly. Always ensure you shut down your computer using the options available in your operating system, it will save you a great deal of time and money on the long run.
6. Have the Latest Hardware: Just like your computer software, having outdated hardware can also make your system vulnerable. If you really want to get the best from your computer you need to ensure you’re always doing your best to make sure you purchase and use the latest hardware components produced by your computer manufacturer.
7. Organize Your Downloads: This is another important thing for internet users, especially for those who download a lot on the internet. Don’t just download applications to your desktop or to any section of your computer you feel like. Always organize your downloads by making sure you create a special folder for any of your internet downloads. In fact you should organize your files on your computer on a regular basis and try to stick to that.

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10 Steps you should do when your pc was hangs up

You are in the middle of doing your work, suddenly you realized your computer hanged up. But the problem is, you have not saved your work! Don’t panic! There is a solution for that! And you can surely save your file! Here’s how:

1. Click on “ctrl-alt-delete” keys.
The windows task manager will then open, click on all programs that you don’t need and end the task. You will see that all programs on your taskbar will close one by one. If this will resolve the issue! – then save! (tip# 1: if you’re working on an MS Office application, it will automatically save your file in case the programs suddenly shut down — tip# 2: always save your file at least every 2 minutes by just simply clicking on the “diskette icon”— its just one click!)

2. If it did not resolve the issue,
are there some users logged on that computer? If so, go to switch user (for XP) and log off that user, go back to your log on screen and log on again.

The reason the computer hang up is because if there are many open programs and applications, these retains in the memory, if it is too much for the memory to handle, it freezes! Another reason too the computer hang up is because if you are connected to the internet via dial up, and you are running too many applications and opening many websites. So I suggest, if you are multimedia user or a heavy internet user, then you are better off with a higher memory, at least 512Mb of memory.

There are simple ways to avoid computer to freeze or hang up:

3. Clean your history at least once a week
>tools>internet options>clear history. I normally set my history to “0”, meaning, when I restart my computer, it doesn’t save history pages that I have visited

4. Delete all internet temporary files
>tools>internet options>delete files (do the “offline” content too!)

5. Delete cookies
(some do not do this, but I do delete cookies at least once a week!) >tools>internet options>delete cookies
6. Remove unnecessary programs that you no longer use
they are just occupying space and memory! >control panel>add/remove programs

7. Do defragmentation at least once a week
>point the mouse to “start” button, then right click “explore”>right click the mouse pointing to drive C (which is usually the main system logical drive) >properties>tools>defragment now

8. You can also check the logical drive’s volume for errors.
>point the mouse to “start” button, then right click “explore”>right click the mouse pointing to drive C (I repeat, is usually the main system logical drive) >properties>tools>check now

9. It is better to have only one user being logged on.
Even if there are many users, make sure the user logs off after using the computer, rather than keeping it logged on and you do the switching of users. Switching users is good as long as you don’t keep all users logged on—I think that is more logical

10. Always shut down properly the computer.
(do NOT use the power button when turning it off!

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