Five Free Ways To Improve Your Computer’s Performance

Is your PC slowing down? Or maybe it’s crashing more and more? Well, if that’s the case, it just might be because your PC is suffering from old age! Yes, that’s right! Just like people, PCs suffer from the aging process.

But there’s good news!

Unlike with people, you can actually turn back the clock and bring your beloved PC back to life. All it takes is a couple of easy-to-follow tips to reignite your PC’s performance, bringing it up to full speed again.

Just follow these simple steps:

System configuration utility
Even when your computer sits there doing nothing, it could be running at least 50 programs! These are programs that are munching away at your poor old CPU, not to mention having a right good go at your memory. The reason for this is because over time, the more stuff you install, more junk builds up and even if you don’t use that program, there’s a good chance that it’s running in the background.

To see what I mean hit CTRL +ALT + DELETE then press the processes tab. It will show you how many processes are running in the background.

1. To solve this little dilemma just go to Start or Run for XP owners and type MSCONFIG.

2. The System configuration will appear and from there, go to the STARTUP tab.

3. Once you’ve selected the STARTUP tab, you’ll be presented with all the programs that are running in the background of your PC. What I would recommend is turning everything off apart from your anti-virus.

If you see anything that you do want on, for example MSN messenger, by all means keep it on, but the more you have running in the background, the more it will drain your PC’s performance, affecting your Boot time, as well.

System configuration utility part 2
Now, while still in the System Configuration Utility, go to the second tab, called SERVICES, and check the box, HIDE ALL MICROSOFT SERVICES. We have to do this (unless you’re a bit more experienced) because if you turn off one of Microsoft’s services, you could mess up your entire PC and we don’t want that, do we?

Once you’ve checked the box, you should be left with only the non-Microsoft services.

Once again, I would recommend that you turn them all off except for the anti-virus services. Once you’ve decided what gets the chop and what doesn’t, click Apply and you’re done.

Performance Options
Depending on which OS (operating system) you’re using, this could make or break it. If your using Windows Vista, I would recommend turning off some of the visual effects, especially on lower-end systems. However, if your using XP, the performance will be less impressive, but I believe every ounce of performance is crucial. Besides, you won’t even notice when half of these are switched off, anyway.

Now as much as I would love to tell you how to get to these options, the way to get there is very different between Vista and XP. So, as a way around this (and probably a cop-out as well), I’ll just tell the Vista owners to type PERFORMANCE in the search bar, select PERFORMANCE INFORMATION AND TOOLS, click ADJUST VISUAL EFFECTS and you’ll find your way there.

For XP owners read on:

1. Go to Start, Control Panel and select PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCE.

2. Then, ADJUST VISUAL EFFECTS and you should find yourself there.

Now, I would recommend turning them all off barring the last one. The last one keeps the modern Windows feel, which I personally like, but hey, everyone’s different.

Uninstalling
A fast Hardrive is a empty hardrive. So, if you’ve got a hardrive full to the brim, delete the programs and games you don’t need to speed up your Hardrive and watch those boot times fly!

Tip: If you’re a gamer (like me), what you can do is save the “save game” file and uninstall the full game. This way, you can get the wanted space back without losing your place on Crysis. Cool, eh?

Defragging
Now there are hundreds of other tips I wanted to share with you, but I wanted to keep this article as short as possible to prevent you from being bored to death, but the very last thing I would do to my PC once I finish optimizing it is to defrag it.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Yes, I already know that, James.” But what I would recommend is to use a different defragger, especially if you’re using the dreaded Vista defragger.

Now, as you’ve probably gathered, I can’t stand Vista’s defragger. I think it’s actually a step backwards, not a step forward. But what really annoys me about it is that you have no idea how long it will take and how defragmented your hardrive is.

But don’t worry, because I’m going to show you how to download a much better one than Vista’s own shoddy attempt. Auslogics Disk defragger is its name and I think you’ll find it quick and easy to use and it seems to do quite a good job, as well.

And another thing.. It’s completely free to download. Just Google “Auslogics Disk defragger” and you should find it in no time.