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How to make your computer faster
Don't you hate shutting down your computer only to realize that you have 10 minutes of updates? Or have a popup box asking you to reboot your computer every 5 minutes? Take control of your updates by either disabling or rescheduling so that it doesn't strike you when you are rushing off for dinner at the end of the day.
...
view details
Disabling system restore will speed up your computer significantly, most people think that system restore will backup their data, which is wrong, it will only restore program states and files such as exe, dlls, registry settings, etc...
...
view details
Temp files are located within C:Documents and Settings[your name]Local SettingsTemp Generally things that you download and run immediate are located here so do once over check to make sure that you haven't go anything important in here and delete everything in the folder.
...
view details
Why spend all the money of partitioning your hard drive when you can do it from the start!
...
view details
Do you have a WiFi connection, Telnet or other services? Disable these to save previous memory, CPU cycles and boot up times! The fastest way to get to these services is to press Win+R then type in "services.msc" + enter. Here is a list of services that you might want to consider to disable:
...
view details
XP installs some components by default you can increase the speed of your computer esp. if you don't need it. To disable windows components "Start" Menu > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "Add or Remove Programs" > Select "Add/Remove Windows Components".
...
view details
If your OS has been on your computer for more than 6 - 12 months, it might be due for a re-install. No matter how careful you are about installing programs, defragging your computer, your computer WILL slow down. It's a sad reality. Some of the reasons for installing your computer are:
...
view details
Disk Defragmenter will help position your files into contiguous blocks and helps increase space on your computer
...
view details
Adding memory and hard disk space are the best ways to improve the performance of your computer.
...
view details
You might be surprised how many things gets launched when you start up your computer. There are two places you can look at to disable applications on startup:
...
view details
How many times have you opened up Excel to do a simple calculation? Click here to download power calculator http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.
...
view details
How many of us really use the recycle bin? Maybe immediately after you have deleted an item but rarely something that you have deleted a week or month ago. Did you know that you can change the recycle bin sizes for each of your drives? Or even better disable it all together (if you are an advanced user).
...
view details
Tweak UI is a free tool from Microsoft to help you optimize advance setting on your computer, when done right it can significantly improve your experience. Click here to download TweakUi http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx. Here are some common settings that you might want to change:
...
view details
If you have anything bigger than a 1024x768 resolution on your monitor, multiple screens, you will probably have issues with your default mouse speed. Firstly there are two things to consider when you want to increase the speed of your mouse:
...
view details
Do you really need to know when you computer starts up or shuts down? All of these takes up precious resources loading and playing the wav sound files. Try disabling them!
...
view details
If you spend most of your time in your applications like most people having a desktop image can just be useless! Change it to a black image, save memory, refresh times of your desktop, energy, and extend the life of your monitor / LCD.
...
view details
Do you really need to update your software every day? If it isn't your virus scanner or your personal firewall (if you have one) then you don't really need to update this every day. Check out your C:WindowsTask folder or go to "Start" menu > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "Scheduled Tasks".
...
view details
This is a free tool from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx, that enables you to have clear fonts. Technically what it does is it applies anti-aliasing of fonts before it's rendered to the monitor. In layman's it smooths out the fonts, making it easier to read esp. with LCD monitors.
Download and follow the instructions, if you have any problems you can find the tuner at "Start" menu > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "ClearType Tuning"
Printers have grown a lot since the dot matrix days, these days you can check your toner / ink levels, check how many pieces of paper you have, report problems, even scan, photocopy, fax remotely. But do you really need all this functionality everywhere?
...
view details
The recycle bin chews up resources you dedicate normally around 10% of your drives on this. On a 1TB drive that's 100GB of space! Not to mention that the OS needs to keep track and add files to your system. In any case you can always undelete files through numerous programs out there anyway!
...
view details
Do you hate it when windows takes forever to close your applications? if you properly save your work then it's safe to set this value lower.
Do you hate it when windows takes forever to close your applications? if you properly save your work then it's safe to set this value lower.
Did you know that every time you access a file your computer updates the last accessed time stamp? Note this is not the last modified time stamp which I find really useful. So if you don't want to know when your files were last accessed try this:
Did you know besides CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to get the task manager you can also type in Windows Key + R and type in perfmon? Well if you've never heard of it then you probably never will monitor your disk drive performance.
Getting another hard drive can double your read speed which is vital when the computer start up or loading files and applications. Follow these tips to a faster computer.
...
view details
Browser other topics in Technology
Optimizing / Speeding up Mac OS X
Media player classic tips, the best video player for windows
Do you hate it when you never have the right codecs for your videos, feel like your player is slow to start, takes up too much memory, having different default players for different formats like mp3, quicktime, flv, mobile phone video formats? Media player classic is the simplest way to solve all your video woes!
Optimizing / Speeding up Vista
According to Microsoft Vista requires 1GB of ram, 40GB of hard disk space, and significant video hardware which needs to be a minimum of 128 MB graphics memory. But there are ways to help speed up your Vista, to reduce your memory and speed up your computer in the process.
Best way to remove viruses, spyware, worms and trojens
Most of us knows roughly what we must do to avoid viruses but what happens when you've got a virus, what's the best and safest way to remove them?
Best ways to watch the Beijing Olympics from your home
Not planning to go to Beijing for the Olympics? Try these tips to watch the Olympics from the comfort of your couch / computer.
Simple excel function tips to make you an expert
Do you have lots of information, or always wanted to know simple information about your table but never knew how to find out how to use the functions in Excel. Try some of these tips and make your excel sheet stand out!
SCORE
4325
Vote Here
Reschedule Automatic Updates / Disable Automatic Updates
Don't you hate shutting down your computer only to realize that you have 10 minutes of updates? Or have a popup box asking you to reboot your computer every 5 minutes? Take control of your updates by either disabling or rescheduling so that it doesn't strike you when you are rushing off for dinner at the end of the day.
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
1219
Vote Here
Remove & Disable System Restore
Disabling system restore will speed up your computer significantly, most people think that system restore will backup their data, which is wrong, it will only restore program states and files such as exe, dlls, registry settings, etc...
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
992
Vote Here
Delete temporary files
Temp files are located within C:Documents and Settings[your name]Local SettingsTemp Generally things that you download and run immediate are located here so do once over check to make sure that you haven't go anything important in here and delete everything in the folder.
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
991
Vote Here
Ultimate partitioning guide
Why spend all the money of partitioning your hard drive when you can do it from the start!
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
927
Vote Here
Disable unused services
Do you have a WiFi connection, Telnet or other services? Disable these to save previous memory, CPU cycles and boot up times! The fastest way to get to these services is to press Win+R then type in "services.msc" + enter. Here is a list of services that you might want to consider to disable:
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
885
Vote Here
Uninstalled unused windows components
XP installs some components by default you can increase the speed of your computer esp. if you don't need it. To disable windows components "Start" Menu > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "Add or Remove Programs" > Select "Add/Remove Windows Components".
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
862
Vote Here
Reinstall your Operating System (OS)
If your OS has been on your computer for more than 6 - 12 months, it might be due for a re-install. No matter how careful you are about installing programs, defragging your computer, your computer WILL slow down. It's a sad reality. Some of the reasons for installing your computer are:
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
853
Vote Here
Defrag your computer
Disk Defragmenter will help position your files into contiguous blocks and helps increase space on your computer
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
824
Vote Here
Add more memory
Adding memory and hard disk space are the best ways to improve the performance of your computer.
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
822
Vote Here
Disable startup applications / autoruns
You might be surprised how many things gets launched when you start up your computer. There are two places you can look at to disable applications on startup:
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
803
Vote Here
Power Calculator
How many times have you opened up Excel to do a simple calculation? Click here to download power calculator http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
764
Vote Here
Cutomize Recycle Bin Sizes
How many of us really use the recycle bin? Maybe immediately after you have deleted an item but rarely something that you have deleted a week or month ago. Did you know that you can change the recycle bin sizes for each of your drives? Or even better disable it all together (if you are an advanced user).
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
753
Vote Here
Tweak UI the best way to change registry settings
Tweak UI is a free tool from Microsoft to help you optimize advance setting on your computer, when done right it can significantly improve your experience. Click here to download TweakUi http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx. Here are some common settings that you might want to change:
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
750
Vote Here
Increase your mouse pointer speed
If you have anything bigger than a 1024x768 resolution on your monitor, multiple screens, you will probably have issues with your default mouse speed. Firstly there are two things to consider when you want to increase the speed of your mouse:
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
749
Vote Here
Clean up your desktop
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
740
Vote Here
Disable system sounds
Do you really need to know when you computer starts up or shuts down? All of these takes up precious resources loading and playing the wav sound files. Try disabling them!
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
739
Vote Here
Use a blank desktop image
If you spend most of your time in your applications like most people having a desktop image can just be useless! Change it to a black image, save memory, refresh times of your desktop, energy, and extend the life of your monitor / LCD.
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
733
Vote Here
View PDF documents faster!
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
726
Vote Here
Remove unwanted scheduled tasks
Do you really need to update your software every day? If it isn't your virus scanner or your personal firewall (if you have one) then you don't really need to update this every day. Check out your C:WindowsTask folder or go to "Start" menu > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "Scheduled Tasks".
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
718
Vote Here
Make your fonts clearer with ClearType Tuner
This is a free tool from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx, that enables you to have clear fonts. Technically what it does is it applies anti-aliasing of fonts before it's rendered to the monitor. In layman's it smooths out the fonts, making it easier to read esp. with LCD monitors.
Download and follow the instructions, if you have any problems you can find the tuner at "Start" menu > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "ClearType Tuning"
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
699
Vote Here
Install the printer driver only not the whole application
Printers have grown a lot since the dot matrix days, these days you can check your toner / ink levels, check how many pieces of paper you have, report problems, even scan, photocopy, fax remotely. But do you really need all this functionality everywhere?
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
493
Vote Here
Disable the Recycle Bin
The recycle bin chews up resources you dedicate normally around 10% of your drives on this. On a 1TB drive that's 100GB of space! Not to mention that the OS needs to keep track and add files to your system. In any case you can always undelete files through numerous programs out there anyway!
...view details
Added by charles (14 August 2008)
SCORE
380
Vote Here
Speed up your XP Shutdown
Do you hate it when windows takes forever to close your applications? if you properly save your work then it's safe to set this value lower.
- Run regedit by Pressing Windows Key + R then typing regedit and press the enter key
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > WaitToKillServiceTimeOut
- Change the value from 20000 (20 seconds) to something like 10000 (10 seconds) or 5000 (5 seconds)
- Note you will have to reboot the computer for this to take effect.
Added by leanna (14 August 2008)
SCORE
353
Vote Here
Improve you boot time by decreasing the prefetch times
Do you hate it when windows takes forever to close your applications? if you properly save your work then it's safe to set this value lower.
- Run regedit by Pressing Windows Key + R then typing regedit and press the enter key
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > SessionManager > MemoryManagement > PrefetchParameters
- Change the value from 3 to 5, this delays the computer from loading files that it doesn't immediate require. This can speed up your computer by up to 5 seconds!
- Note you will have to reboot the computer for this to take effect.
Added by leanna (14 August 2008)
SCORE
322
Vote Here
Make reading from your computer faster with your NTFS drive
Did you know that every time you access a file your computer updates the last accessed time stamp? Note this is not the last modified time stamp which I find really useful. So if you don't want to know when your files were last accessed try this:
- Run regedit by Pressing Windows Key + R then typing regedit and press the enter key
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > fileSystem > NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
- Change this value from 0 to 1
- Note you will have to reboot the computer for this to take effect.
Added by leanna (14 August 2008)
SCORE
313
Vote Here
Disable Disk performance coutners
Did you know besides CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to get the task manager you can also type in Windows Key + R and type in perfmon? Well if you've never heard of it then you probably never will monitor your disk drive performance.
- Run regedit by Pressing Windows Key + R then typing 'diskperf -N' and press the enter key
Added by leanna (14 August 2008)
SCORE
282
Vote Here
Add another hard drive
Getting another hard drive can double your read speed which is vital when the computer start up or loading files and applications. Follow these tips to a faster computer.
...view details
Added by leanna (14 August 2008)
Optimizing / Speeding up Mac OS X
Media player classic tips, the best video player for windows
Do you hate it when you never have the right codecs for your videos, feel like your player is slow to start, takes up too much memory, having different default players for different formats like mp3, quicktime, flv, mobile phone video formats? Media player classic is the simplest way to solve all your video woes!
Optimizing / Speeding up Vista
According to Microsoft Vista requires 1GB of ram, 40GB of hard disk space, and significant video hardware which needs to be a minimum of 128 MB graphics memory. But there are ways to help speed up your Vista, to reduce your memory and speed up your computer in the process.
Best way to remove viruses, spyware, worms and trojens
Most of us knows roughly what we must do to avoid viruses but what happens when you've got a virus, what's the best and safest way to remove them?
Best ways to watch the Beijing Olympics from your home
Not planning to go to Beijing for the Olympics? Try these tips to watch the Olympics from the comfort of your couch / computer.
Simple excel function tips to make you an expert
Do you have lots of information, or always wanted to know simple information about your table but never knew how to find out how to use the functions in Excel. Try some of these tips and make your excel sheet stand out!