10 Ways To Improve Your PC's Performance

After maybe using your computer for a while, you might notice it’s a bit slower. Some of you would choose to reformat your computer, but if you do not want to, you could do the following things to your PC to improve its performance


1. After installing and deleting programmes over time, you will leave behind broken bits of data called old registry entries. This will take up disk space and slow down the opening of programmes as the computer has to scan through the old registry entries.

- To solve this problem, you could download a free programme called Abexo Free Registry Cleaner 1 from download.com; if you wish to use a better programme use Registry Mechanic.

2. Dynamic Linked Libary


There is a something called DLL, it is need in every programme to run. This DLL which stands for dynamic linked library it is for linking to dynamic libraries is usually handled by linking to an import library when building or linking to create an executable file. The created executable then contains an import address table (IAT) to which all dll function calls are referenced to (each referenced dll function contains its own entry in the IAT). At run-time, the IAT is filled with appropriate addresses that point directly to a function in the separately-loaded dll. In other words this is linked to all the programmes in the computer.

- To solve this problem, simple, delete unwanted programme which you do not need. [! Do not delete dlls, your programme might not work!]

3. Fragmented files

Fragmented files in the hard disk also slows down the computer, this happens when you move files around the hard disk and uninstall and install programmes

- To solve this problem, Use disk defragmenter to defragmenter the hard disk. This can be found under; All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Try not to do anything while defragmenting, the best is to turn off the internet and let the computer do its defgrament. IF you want to have a better program use Diskeeper. But Diskkeeper is special, it can defrag in real-time.

4. Startup

Your computer's startup time might be slow too; this is due to many programs running at startup.
- To solve this problem, go to "Run" on the start menu and type in msconfig, select the startup tab and disable the programmes you do not need. A better programme would be StartupXPert Professional - FOC

5. Internet

You want your browsing speed to be slightly faster in Mozilla Firefox without having to subscribe for a high bandwidth.

- Open Mozilla Firefox, type about:config in the address bar. Under the Filter, type in network.http.pipelining, set the value to true by right-clicking it and click on toggle. Below it there is network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, right click, and modify the value to 10. If you want your downloading speed to be faster go get Download Accelerator Plus on download.com, it is FOC. If you want a better programme, use Internet Download Manager. Firefox also stores the previous page you surfed so that you can immediately load the page when you click the back button, this takes up lots of memory, so to prevent this, under the filter bar type in browser.sessionhistroy and under browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers - set the value from -1 to 0

6. Spyware / adware

Spyware / adware, Minor viruses or key loggers could slow down your computer as they are monitoring what you do in the background. To solve this problem, use an anit-spyware programme, I would recommend Ad-Aware SE Personal (this beats all the other anit-spywares), or better still Spyware Doctor. For an anti-virus get AVG free edition, it has updates every single day, so your virus database will be up-to-date. [Note that too many programmes running in the background might take up RAM and slow down the computer] Kaspersky and Nod32 is what i recommend the most...

7. RAM

Low ram memory would cause lag – get FreeRAM XP Pro from download.com, this programme can auto free your ram when the ram gets lower then a certain MB, you can also try to force free the amount of RAM you want. - this programme is not usually necessary for people with RAM of 1GB and above unless you run programmes that takes up lots of RAM

TuneUp Utilities 2007 is one the programme I like the most, it has a registry cleaner, registry defragmenter, startup manager, disk cleaner, disk doctor (to correct errors on the hard drive), memory optimizer (to clear ram memory), system optimizer, process manager, registry editor, uninstall manager, file shredder (to delete files completely, ensuring they cannot be recovered later) and undelete (to get back file you deleted, not shred). So this is almost an all-in-one programme.

8. Virtual Memory

When all of your computer's real physical memory (RAM) is in use, Windows will try to create virtual memory by grabbing hard drive space and treating it like real memory. Your software can't tell the difference between real and virtual memory, but you might because virtual memory access is much slower, due to the hard drive activity it requires.

If you encounter the low virtual memory error message, then you have used the maximum amount of real plus virtual memory that is supported on your system. Sometimes programs that crash or ones that are poorly designed will not return their working memory space to the operating system when they're done using it. Other programs that need a large amount of memory to run may fail because Windows cannot "see" the available memory. In most cases, a shutdown and restart will resolve this problem.

If you still see "Your system is low on virtual memory" message then make sure your computer is configured to allow Windows to automatically manage the virtual memory.

Open the Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance, and then click System > Advanced tab > Under Performance, click Settings > click Advanced tab > under Virtual memory, click Change > Under Drive [Volume Label] > click the drive that contains the paging file (virtual memory) settings that you want to > change. In almost every case, this will be your C: drive > Click to select the "System > managed size" option, then click Set > Click OK three times and restart your computer.
When you allow Windows to manage your virtual memory, it should make the optimum amount of virtual memory available, by automatically shrinking or enlarging the paging file as needed. If that doesn't solve the low virtual memory problem;

It might just be the case that your computer needs more real, physical memory. By this I mean RAMs.To see how much memory you have installed, follow these steps under Windows XP: Open the Control Panel > click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System. On the System Properties window, you'll see the type and speed of your processor (CPU) and the amount of RAM. Note that Windows always seems to report that you have slightly less memory than you actually have. For example, if Windows reports 496 MB of RAM, you actually have 512 MB. The more RAM you have, the better your computer will perform.

9. Shut Down Time
It's not only the startup time you want to speed up, you could also speed up your shutdown time.

For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn't a high priority, you might not want to clear it. (I do not recommend clearing the paging file for basic home users)

To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor [click Start > Run, then type regedit in the Run box] and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management, then;

Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry, and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging file won't be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.

[BECAREFUL WHEN EDITING THE REGISTRY!], you could do alot of damage to your PC such as; it unable to startup if you do the wrong thing.

10. Scan Your Hard Disk

Have you ever experienced you computer crashing? Making it difficult to shut it down properly? Or ever experiencing a power outage? These problems and others can cause damage to your system files. Windows provides a utility called Scandisk that will automatically detect and fix much of the damage, improving your system's performance in the process.

Open My Computer > right on your local disk [it will be disk (C for most users] > click Properties > Click the Tools tab > Under the Error-checking section click ‘Check Now’ . It is important to check the drive for errors before defragmenting.