How to speed up your PC?

Have you ever noticed that no matter how good your PC’s configuration is, it tends to get slower as the time passes by? Ever wondered why does this happen and how to fix? Well this is what I am going to explain and give you tips and tricks to fix it.

1. Uninstall all the unused/unwanted programs.
   • Reason: Windows OS is based on the registry system. In simple words, what ever you install or any changes you make are stored in the Windows Registry and each time you start using your windows, it has to check the registry for installed programs and/or settings. So the more programs and software you install, the slower your PC (Computer System) will become.
   • Solution: Install only the programs/software which you frequently use. You can install software which you use once in a blue moon. Trust me, this will make a significant difference in the PC’s performance. Go ahead and uninstall all the programs you don’t use or use seldom. You can use a free third party utility CCleaner to clean unwanted cookies, broken registry entries, tempary files.
2. Disable the visual effects (eye candy).
   • Reason: Windows Xp onwards, Microsoft has implemented some need visual effect to take the user experience closed to that of a Mac. In the process, they made it very taxing on RAM and Processor. In Simple words, the more visual effects you enable, the slower your PC (Computer System) will become.
   • Solution: If you are willing to compromise the eye candy effects for performance then this is what you do:
     • Right Click “My Computer” icon and click on properties.
     • Go to Advanced Tab and click on Setting button of “Performance”
     • Select the tab “Select for best performance” and press “apply”
3. Scan for Virus, Spywares and Trojans.
   • Reason: Most of the time, an infected system is the reason of a painfully slow or crashing system, Make sure you have a lightweight Antivirus and Antispyware software installed. Not to mention, that software should be updated regularly too.
   • Solution: Please view “How to clean an infected PC” for more details.
4. Defrag your hard drive .
   • Reason: Fragmentation is caused when an operating system breaks a file into pieces because there is not enough space on the storage device where the file was originally saved.  Hence, defragmentation can be defines as the process of scanning the file system and rejoining the split files back into consecutive pieces. Windows OS comes with an inbuilt utility, but if you want you could use third party software to defrag for hard drives.
   • Solution: This is you to use the inbuilt defag utility:
     • Open “My Computers”. Right click any hard drive icon and go to properties.
     • Now under “Tools” tab, click “Defragment now” button.
     • Make sure you do NOT use your computer which the defragment process is in progress.
5. Remove unwanted start up programs:
   • Reason: As soon as you start your Windows, there are many programs and background processes which turns on automatically. Most of them are unwanted and makes the PC slow. Simple words you should have minimum amount of icons in the bottom right corner of your PC.
   • Solution: Please disable only those programs or services which you are sure of. This step is not for novice users. This is how you disable unwanted start up programs:
     • Go to “Start” and click on “Run”
     • Type “msconfig” and press OK button.
     • From the popup window, select “start up” tab.
     • Now you will have a list of all the programs which starts automatically with Windows. Just uncheck the items to disable them. You need not to worry no much, you can always “undo” this step by re checking the items again.
     • You are also use an addition utility “Autoruns” by Windows to do the same.