DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
gworld
HTML https://gworld.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: PC / LAPTOP ZONE
*****************************************************
#Post#: 41--------------------------------------------------
100 WAYS TO IMPROVE PC PERFOMANCE
By: eba95 Date: July 25, 2010, 4:02 am
---------------------------------------------------------
. Defragment your computer hard
disk using free tools like
SmartDefrag.
2. You should also defragment your
Windows pagefile and registry.
3. Clean up hard drive disk space
being taken up by temporary files,
the recycle bin, hibernation and
more. You can also use a tool like
TreeSize to determine what is taking
up space on your hard drive.
4. Load up Windows faster by using
Startup Delayer, a free program that
will speed up the boot time of
Windows by delaying the startup of
programs.
5. Speaking of startup programs,
many of them are useless and can be
turned off. Use the MSCONFIG utility
to disable startup programs.
6. By default, the size of the paging
file is controlled by Windows, which
can cause defragmentation. Also, the
paging file should be on a different
hard drive or partition than the boot
partition. Read here on the rules for
best paging file performance.
7. In Windows XP and Vista, the
Windows Search indexing service is
turned on for all local hard drives.
Turning off indexing is a simple way
to increase performance.
8. If you don’t care about all the
fancy visual effects in Windows, you
can turn them off by going to
Performance Options.
9. You can optimize the Windows
boot time using a free program
called Bootvis from Microsoft.
10. Clean your registry by removing
broken shortcuts, missing shared
DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer
references and more. Read about the
10 best and free registry cleaners.
11. One of the main reasons why PC’s
are slow is because of spyware.
There are many programs to
remove spyware including Ad-
Aware, Giant Antispyware,
SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.
12. If you have a deeper spyware
infection that is very hard to
remove, you can use HijackThis to
remove spyware.
13. Remove unwanted pre-installed
software (aka junk software) from
your new PC using PC Decrapifier.
14. Disable unnecessary Windows
services, settings, and programs that
slow down your computer.
15. Tweak Windows XP and tweak
Windows Vista settings using free
programs
16. Disable UAC (User Account
Control) in Windows Vista
17. Tweak your mouse settings so
that you can copy and paste faster,
scroll faster, navigate quickly while
browsing and more. Read here to
learn how to tweak your mouse.
18. Delete temporary and unused
files on your computer using a free
program like CCleaner. It can also fix
issues with your registry.
19. Delete your Internet browsing
history, temporary Internet files,
cookies to free up disk space.
20. Clean out the Windows prefetch
folder to improve performance.
21. Disable the XP boot logo to speed
up Windows boot time.
22. Reduce the number of fonts that
your computer has to load up on
startup.
23. Force Windows to unload DLLs
from memory to free up RAM.
24. Run DOS programs in separate
memory spaces for better
performance.
25. Turn off system restore only if
you regularly backup your Windows
machine using third party software.
26. Move or change the location of
your My Documents folder so that it
is on a separate partition or hard
drive.
27. Turn off default disk performance
monitors on Windows XP to increase
performance.
28. Speed up boot time by disabling
unused ports on your Windows
machine.
29. Use Process Lasso to speed up
your computer by allowing it to
make sure that no one process can
completely overtake the CPU.
30. Make icons appear faster while
browsing in My Computer by
disabling search for network files
and printers.
31. Speed up browsing of pictures
and videos in Windows Vista by
disabling the Vista thumbnails
cache .
32. Edit the right-click context menu
in Windows XP and Vista and
remove unnecessary items to
increase display speed.
33. Use the Windows Performance
Toolkit and the trace logs to speed
up Windows boot time.
34. Speed up your Internet browsing
by using an external DNS server such
as OpenDNS.
35. Improve Vista performance by
using ReadyBoost, a new feature
whereby Vista can use the free space
on your USB drive as a caching
mechanism.
36. If you have a slow Internet
connection, you can browse web
pages faster using a service called
Finch, which converts it into simple
text.
37. Use Vista Services Optimizer to
disable unnecessary services in Vista
safely.
38. Also, check out my list of web
accelerators, which are programs
that try to prefetch and cache the
sites you are going to visit.
39. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by
tweaking the configuration settings
and by installing an add-on called
FasterFox.
40. Learn how to build your own
computer with the fastest parts and
best hardware.
41. Use a program called TeraCopy to
speed up file copying in Windows XP
and Vista.
42. Disable automatic Last Access
Timestamp to speed up Windows
XP.
43. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista
by hacking the MenuShowDelay key
in the registry.
44. Increase the FileSystem memory
cache in Vista to utilize a system
with a large amount of RAM.
45. Install more RAM if you are
running XP with less than 512 MB or
Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.
46. Shut down XP faster by reducing
the wait time to kill hung
applications.
47. Make sure that you have selected
“ Adjust for best performance” on the
Performance tab in System
Properties.
48. If you are reinstalling Windows,
make sure that you partition your
hard drives correctly to maximize
performance.
49. Use Altiris software virtualization
to install all of your programs into a
virtual layer that does not affect the
registry or system files.
50. Create and install virtual
machines for free and install junk
program, games, etc into the virtual
machines instead of the host
operating system. Check out Sun
openxVM.
51. Do not clear your paging file
during shutdown unless it is needed
for security purposes. Clearing the
paging file slows down shutdown.
52. If your XP or Vista computer is
not using NFTS, make sure you
convert your FAT disk to the NTFS file
system .
53. Update all of your drivers in
Windows, including chipset and
motherboard drivers to their latest
versions.
54. Every once in a while run the
built-in Windows Disk Cleanup
utility .
55. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP
for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in
Device Manager.
56. Remove unnecessary or old
programs from the Add/Remove
dialog of the Control Panel.
57. Use a program click memtest86
or Prime95 to check for bad memory
on your PC.
58. Determine your BIOS version and
check the manufactures website to
see if you need to update your BIOS.
59. Every once in a while, clean your
mouse, keyboard and computer fans
of dust and other buildup.
60. Replace a slow hard drive with a
faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or
SAS drive.
61. Changing from Master/Slave to
Cable Select on your hard drive
configuration can significantly
decrease your boot time.
62. Perform a virus scan on your
computer regularly. If you don ’t
want to install virus protection, use
some of the free online virus
scanners.
63. Remove extra toolbars from your
Windows taskbar and from your
Internet browser.
64. Disable the Windows Vista
Sidebar if you’re not really using it
for anything important. All those
gadgets take up memory and
processing power.
65. If you have a SATA drive and
you ’re running Windows Vista, you
can speed up your PC by enabling
the advanced write caching features.
66. Learn how to use keyboard
shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft
Word, Outlook, or create your own
keyboard shortcuts.
67. Turn off the Aero visual effects in
Windows Vista to increase computer
performance.
68. If you are technically savvy and
don ’t mind taking a few risks, you
can try to overclock your processor.
69. Speed up the Send To menu in
Explorer by typing “sendto” in the
Run dialog box and deleting
unnecessary items.
70. Make sure to download all the
latest Windows Updates, Service
Packs, and hot fixes as they
“ normally” help your computer work
better.
71. Make sure that there are no bad
sectors or other errors on your hard
drive by using the ScanDisk orchkdsk
utility.
72. If you are not using some of the
hardware on your computer, i.e.
floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USB
ports, IR ports, Firewire, etc, then go
into your BIOS and disable them so
that they do not use any power and
do not have to be loaded during
boot up.
73. If you have never used the
Recent Documents feature in
Windows, then disable it completely
as a long list can affect PC
performance.
74. One basic tweak that can help in
performance is to disable error
reporting in Windows XP
75. If you don’t care about a pretty
interface, you should use the
Windows Classic theme under
Display Properties .
76. Disable short filenames if you are
using NTFS by running the following
command: fsutil behavior set
disable8dot3 1. It will speed up the
file creation process.
77. If you have lots of files in a single
folder, it can slow down Explorer. It ’s
best to create multiple folders and
spread out the files between the
folders.
78. If you have files that are
generally large, you might want to
consider increasing the cluster size
on NTFS to 16K or even 32K instead
of 4K. This will help speed up
opening of files.
79. If you have more than one disk in
your PC, you can increase
performance by moving your paging
file to the second drive and
formatting the volume using FAT32
instead of NTFS.
80. Turn off unnecessary features in
Vista by going to Control Panel,
choosing Uninstall a program, and
then clicking on Turn Windows
features on and off. You can turn off
Remote Differential Compression,
Tablet PC components, DFS
replication service, Windows Fax &
Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and
lots more.
81. Install a free or commercial anti-
virus program to help protect
against viruses, etc. Make sure to use
an anti-virus program that does not
hog up all of your computer
resources.
82. Completely uninstall programs
and applications using a program
like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid of
remnants left behind by normal
uninstalls.
83. If you know what you are doing,
you can install several hard drives
into your machine and set them up
in RAID 0, RAID 5, or other RAID
configurations.
84. If you are using USB 1.0 ports,
upgrade to 2.0. If you have a
Firewire port, try to use that instead
of a USB port since Firewire is faster
than USB right now.
85. Remove the drivers for all old
devices that may be hidden in
Device Manager that you no longer
use.
86. A more extreme option is to
choose a faster operating system. If
you find Vista to be slow, go with
Windows XP. Switching to Mac or
Linux is also an option.
87. One of the easiest ways to speed
up your PC is to simply reformat it.
Of course, you want to backup your
data, but it is the best way to get
your computer back to peak
performance.
88. Speed up Internet browsing in IE
by increasing the number of max
connections per server in the
registry.
89. If you use uTorrent to download
torrents, you can increase the
download speeds by tweaking the
settings.
90. If you have a desktop
background, make sure it’s a small
and simple bitmap image rather
than a fancy picture off the Internet.
The best is to find a really small
texture and to tile it.
91. For the Virtual Memory setting in
Windows (right-click on My
Computer, Properties, Advanced,
Performance Settings, Advanced,
Virtual Memory), make sure the MIN
and MAX are both the same number.
92. If you search on Google a lot or
Wikipedia, you can do it much faster
on Vista by adding them to the Vista
Start Menu Instant Search box.
93. If you have a custom built
computer or a PC that was
previously used, make sure to check
the BIOS for optimal settings such as
enabled CPU caches, correctly set
IDE/SATA data transfer modes,
memory timings, etc. You can also
enable Fast/Quick boot if you have
that option.
94. If you have a SCSI drive, make
sure the write cache is enabled. You
can do so by opening the properties
of the SCSI drive in Windows.
95. If you have a machine with an
older network card, make sure to
enable the onboard processor for the
network card , which will offload
tasks from the CPU.
96. If you are using Windows Vista,
you can disable the Welcome Center
splash screen that always pops up.
97. If you already have anti-spyware
software installed, turn off Windows
Defender protection.
98. If you are running a 32-bit
version of Windows and have 4GB of
RAM or more, you can force
Windows to see and use all of the
RAM by enabling PAE.
99. Broke your computer and sell it
to hardware store..
100. Better go for a new computer ,
buy optimized software..
*****************************************************