Speeding Up Your Computer

Is your computer running slow? Are you thinking about buying a new one? You may not want to go PC shopping just yet. For home computers that are less than 5 years old and used primarily for emailing and surfing the net you may be able to extend the lifespan of you old PC and save some cash. Here are 5 easy ways that may help you get another 1 or even 5 years of use out of your computer (depending on the age of your machine) before you definitely need to consider buying a new one.
1. Upgrade or replace your computer's memory.
This is one of the most useful things you can do to improve your computers performance and I recommend at least doubling the amount of memory you currently have installed. Since computer that was bought less that 5 years ago will most likely be running a version of Windows XP anything 1gigabyte (GB) or more would be a good idea if you computer can handle it.
If you know enough to do it yourself then buy what you need online where the price is generally cheaper than retail, though I would caution you if you computer is still under some kind of warranty. Opening up your PC will likely void any warranty or service plan you have if you do not take it to a professional.
If you don't know what you are doing or have a warranty then by all means take your PC to a local computer shop. Tell them that you want to put more memory in your computer and as long as you buy the memory sticks at their store, they will generally pop them in at little or no additional charge. Plus they will usually offer helpful suggestion on ways to improve your PC's performance or tell you if your computer is still worth upgrading.
Depending on how much memory you put in your machine and where you buy it, this could cost a couple hundred dollars. However, it is likely still cheaper than buying a new computer.
2. Clean up your start up programs.
If you computer runs slow, especially during start up, you probably have too many programs all trying to start every time you boot up. Look in the lower right-hand corner of you screen where the clock is located on your toolbar. Every icon that is there when your PC starts up is likely a program using up valuable processor power and slowing things down.
Configure these programs so that they do not load when you start up. It is generally better and less annoying to access these programs from your desktop or start menu when you need them. Most programs have a preference/options choice you can access by right clicking on the icon. Run through all the options and uncheck or deselect anything that tells the program to load during start up. Also if you no longer need or use the program, uninstall it. A good rule of thumb is to have only your antivirus, antispyware, time and network connection icons in that space at start up.
3. Defrag your computer
Open up your start menu in the lower left hand corner of your screen. Click > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. This will help to better organize the information on your computer's hard drive (HD) and make it easier for your computer to access the information that is stored there. Windows gives you the option of scheduling regular times for the computer to defragment, which is a good idea. Generally it is better if you don't do this more than once per month.
4. Clean up your Hard drive
Use the same steps as above to get to the system tools folder where the Disk Cleanup option is located. Run this program and Windows will suggest things to get rid of that will help clean up disk space. Check the options you want to perform (be sure to read everything) and let the computer do the rest of the work.
5. Clean up your Internet History Files
For this just go into your start menu and then into your control panel. Find your internet options/properties and open it. This may be easier if you have classic view enabled; the option is on the left hand side of the screen when you open the control panel.
Before you do anything else make sure that you have every password and username you use online memorized or written down somewhere safe and accessible. Also make sure that you have bookmarked all the pages you frequent so that you don't lose this information. Once you have internet options open you should see an options that says to store visited web pages for X number of day. (This option may also be under Settings in the Browsing History section of the first tab.) Generally this will be set at 20 unless you or someone else has changed it in the past. Set it to a low number like 1 or 5 (mine is set to 0) so that your computer will not store all that information and use up HD space that could be filled with pictures of your family and friends.
Next, under Browsing history, click the delete button. You should get a pop up titled Delete Browsing History and below it are several options. This is why having your usernames and passwords written down will be a good idea. Click the delete all option and you should get another pop up that has an unchecked box with "Also delete files and settings stored by add-ons", check the box and click yes.
Using these options will probably not have your computer running like it did when it was new, but you should see a definite improvement.
Michael Dockery
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