Having an unresponsive, hanging, or painfully slow computer is just one of the main reasons why you might want to optimize your computer. Even if your PC isn't really that old or that slow, it's still vital that you perform regular maintenance on it so you can make certain that it always works at its peak performance and would continue doing so for a longer time. Try these ways to speed up your computer.

Safeguard Your PC

Viruses, worms, and other forms of malware getting into your computer system is a major factor that may really cause your PC to bog down. This is why protection against all types of virus attacks should be a priority for all computer owners. The very first and most elementary security measure that you can take is to install anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, and to set up a firewall. These three have different functions but all of them work to maintain your system free of damaging perpetrators.

Update Your Security Programs

If you've already followed the first step then you should also keep those safety programs up-to-date. Worms and harmful software can evolve faster than you would expect and there's no time to waste. If an upgraded version of the anti-virus program or firewall you're using comes out, then update your version as well.

Invest in New Hardware

Lack of RAM or hard disk space may also contribute to a slow-responding PC. The more applications you add or files you store within your hard disk, the likelihood of your computer being unable to cope up with all the data also increases, hence the need to augment hard disk space. To optimize your computer some more, it would also be worthwhile to check your RAM and see if it's big enough for your particular Windows edition. XP needs a RAM of 512 megabytes, while for Windows 7 and Vista, a 2-gigabyte RAM is needed.

Give Your Registry a Cleanup

A cluttered and disorganized registry is also a common cause why a PC slows down. The registry acts as the core of all that goes on inside your computer system such as installing or removing programs. If any files remain during an uninstall process, the computer would have to go through all the extra information to get to the data it needs. A registry cleaner would greatly help by maintaining your registry, deleting old, unwanted files and speeding up your computer.

It really doesn't take much to get your PC back on the fast lane . A quick fix here and there could do a lot of improvement. With these easy solutions, you can optimize your computer without breaking the bank.

Of the many computer users and owners worldwide, you may be one of those always searching for new methods on how to speed up your computer. In today's technological age, we use the computer for nearly everything, regardless if it's for work or personal stuff. But so many things can cause your PC to bog down, be slow to respond, hang, or even crash altogether. Fortunately, once this happens, it it doesn't have to mean the end of its life. You have still so many possible solutions you can try. Here are some of them:

Replace Your Graphics Board

A lot of computer users wrongly suppose that only a full-time or avid gamer would require a powerful graphics board. There may be some truth to this but it can't be denied as well that your PC could also perform at slower speeds as you use more graphics-heavy applications. If you use Vista or Windows 7 for instance, your graphics board could already be using quite a lot of your graphics board's capacity as these two operating systems are a bit heavy on the fancy effects for the user interface. If you have a relatively new PC, choose a board that will fit into a PCI-express slot. Older models on the other hand, would require either a PCI or AGP slot.

Remove Idle Applications

Unknown to you, there could be a variety of programs or applications that will load as soon as your computer boots up. You may not even be aware that these have been running in the background, especially if you don't use them all the time. But the resources that they take up could contribute to the slowdown of your computer, so this is one area where you can make some changes if you want to know how to speed up your computer.

Deactivating these unnecessary apps is actually quite easy. On your PC using Windows 7 or Vista, go to Start and in the field that says Search programs and files, type msconfig, then press Enter. Next you will find the System Configuration window, and when you select the Startup tab and look under Command column, you'll be able to see a listing of the programs that load when your PC boots up. To prevent them from loading on startup, just uncheck these applications to load on startup}. 

Optimize Your Network Too

While being linked to a local network is important to many mainly for business reasons, it can also contribute to the slow processing time of your computers. To maximize the use of your network without sacrificing your PC's speed, use the latest drivers for your network card, and the newest firmware for your router.

All would agree that a slow computer is usually a big headache and in some cases, even leads to wasted time and resources. But if you know some troubleshooting strategies on how to speed up PC performance, there's no reason why a slow PC should continue to be a burden to you.

Do you need to speed up PC performance? Many problems encountered in Windows can be fixed, or at least reduced in severity, by a Windows XP registry cleaner. While a cleaner will not fix all problems, it is a basic tool that is useful to have when running regular computer maintenance. The registry is often overlooked when performing maintenance on a computer, but it can often be one of the biggest problem areas. A cluttered registry can cause quite a headache for a user.

In basic terms, the registry is a log of all the connections made between programs on your computer. These connections can get crossed when you remove a program without using the uninstall feature. You may also get errors from just installing a program. Some programs are written in a way that may cause registry errors when you install them and there is nothing that you can do to prevent these problems.

Finding a Windows XP registry cleaner is not a hard thing to do. Finding a good one can be another matter. You have two basic choices of programs. You can go with a free program downloadable from the internet or you can buy one from a software company. There are pros and cons for either of these choices.

In your search for a registry cleaner, it is best to do plenty of comparisons first. There are reviews for almost every piece of software out there. If you’re buying, you want to do these comparisons so you don’t end up spending money on an inferior product. If you’re downloading a program, you want to make sure you get one that won’t cause you more problems than it fixes. 

Downloading a program may seem simple and, more importantly, free. However, there can be problems with downloading your software. It may be poorly written or contain malware, either of which may cause more problems than the program solves. If you’re concerned about spending money on a program, consider downloading a demo from the company’s website so you can try before you buy. If you choose to buy a program, you will usually get updates for the program and customer service as well, both big benefits. 

Ensure that the registry cleaner makes a backup in case something goes wrong, so you can restore the information.  Again, caution is the key when making any changes to the registry but with a backup file on hand, the risk of losing important files becomes less. 

Registry cleaners can fix PC errors by eliminating unneeded information, and allow your computer to work to its full potential. You have the choice of using one that is free but fraught with risks, or paying for a tried and tested product. It’s entirely up you but using a combination of caution, common sense, and these tips, you should have no problem choosing a top-notch Windows XP registry cleaner.

The things I did to speed up my computer did not involve buying new hardware or paying steep fees to a professional to tune up my PC. If you spend a little money as an investment in your PC’s health, you won’t have to pay big money to get it repaired at a shop. Your PC, just like any machine, requires regular maintenance to perform at its best. This maintenance might be all your need to get your computer running at that like-new speed again. 

Before you even consider altering or cleaning any part of your computer, you need to backup your data. While there is minimal risk of losing data when you are just doing simple cleaning, there is no reason to put your important information at risk. If you don’t have a backup drive, you can always sign up with one of the many web-based companies which will store your information for only a few dollars a month.  

A great starting point with cleaning up your computer is running a registry cleaner. You can find a wide range of quality in registry cleaners. There are free cleaners available for download, but they may be poorly programmed or lacking tools you want. Because of this, it is always best to go with a paid program from an established company. That way, even if you do have a problem, you will get the customer service to help you out. Registry cleaners are very straight forward and anyone can use them. You simply backup the registry, then run the cleaner.

After you run a cleaner, you’ll want to run a couple programs that are so important Microsoft included them with every copy of Windows. Scan disk and drive defrag are both found under system tools and can significantly improve the speed of your computer. They basically find errors on your drives that may be causing problems and then restructure your files so they load more quickly. The programs essentially run themselves, but since they may take a while, you should consider starting them at night before you go to bed.

Something many people tend to overlook is the additional network drives connecting them to other computers. Whenever your computer loads it has to scan all drives, including network drives, and that can take time. By disconnecting unnecessary network drives, you’ll greatly speed up load time.

You may have a big problem with the initial startup of your computer. If it takes more than a minute for you to get from power on to your desktop, you should strongly consider checking out your startup programs. Many sneaky programs add themselves to your startup menu when you run them. Music apps, chat programs and other similar software might be hogging a lot of your memory upon startup.

These steps are easy enough for anyone to follow and with the exception of purchasing a registry cleaner, they are all free. Should you decide to buy PC maintenance software, Registry Mechanic by PC Tools is one of the programs we recommend. If your computer is running slowly or taking forever to boot up, you might consider following these tips. It took me next to no time at all and helped to speed up my computer a great deal, so I’m confident that it will do the same for you.

Everyone is looking for ways to speed up PC performance, but you don’t have to buy or download separate utilities to do it. Some basic maintenance, which is often overlooked, as well as a little spring cleaning for your computer may often be the only things you need to do in order to get your computer running quickly again. And best of all, these 3 methods don’t require anything more than a little bit of your time.

Before you do any clean up to Windows, it is ever-so-important to backup your data! If you make a mistake, or reconfigure something incorrectly, it can cause bigger problems and maybe even a trip to the PC doctor.  Be safe, and backup those files!

If you want a road runner “speed computer” use registry disk cleanup software to eliminate all of those extra paths that you’ve left during the uninstall process.  This data is no longer needed, and is lazily sleeping within the registry.  Wake them up and kick them off the disk!

Another easy task you can do is run disk defragmenter. You will probably have to run scan disk first and if you haven’t done this in a while it can take quite some time. A badly fragmented drive can take hours to scan and fix, but the difference afterwards is immense. If you don’t have the time to wait, let your computer defrag itself overnight. It is a hands-free process and your computer can do it all without your help. In order to avoid the long defrag nights, run this process every month to make sure your drives are kept in good working order.

Removing some programs from your startup menu may be a little more rigorous and hands on than the other two methods, but it is no less important. Nowadays, we all have dozens of chat, music and other programs we like to run on our computers. But these programs love to add themselves to your start menu when you install them so that they pop up immediately after your boot your computer. However, this can lead to a huge slow down in loading time. If you remove these programs from the startup menu, you can still load them manually, but they will not load themselves when your computer turns on and they will not hog all that memory.

While it isn’t something that everyone has to consider, often times computers on networks share drives. This can be great if you want to access information on another computer, but they do cause a longer load time when you boot up. Since your computer has to load all connected devices, it just takes longer for it to recognize and initiate the connected drives.

Memory itself could also be an issue. If these simple free steps do not solve your PC speed problems, you may just need more or new RAM. Bad RAM can lead to many problems and not enough RAM can lead to a slow PC. RAM is relatively inexpensive, but you can always just buy it as a last resort. If you want to speed up PC performance, consider trying the easy and free methods first.

Making your computer run faster involves a series of steps and tweaks that would require patience and a bit of computer know-how. First, the basic maintenance requirements of your computer should be met. These involve an up-to-date antivirus scan and disk cleanup. To activate disk clean up, right-click your hard drive, choose Properties and push the Disk Cleanup button.

Startup

Once you’re done with the basic necessities, pay attention to your PC’s startup. It’s possible that you have dozens of programs activated at startup, making it slower for the PC to get ready. It will be infinitely better if you just disable these programs at startup and open them only when necessary. This will save your computer time readying the program before you can use the system. You can do this by clicking Start, Run and typing “msconfig” in the box. A new window will appear, click the Startup tab and uncheck all the boxes that you do not require at startup. However, don’t uncheck the antivirus icon since this should always be running in your system.
Uninstall Unused Softwares

One of the reasons why your computer is slowing down could be the amount of programs installed in the system that you don’t really use. If you have idle softwares in your system, you might uninstall them and free important space from your hard drive. You can find this function through Start, Settings, Control Panel and Add or Remove Programs.

Disk Defragmentation

This step could take hours to complete, but it’s worth it. Defragmentation will rearrange your files so that you will be able to access your computer faster. You can do this by right-clicking a hard drive, selecting Properties, clicking tool and choosing the Defragment Now button. It is advisable that you do not use your computer while the system is defragmenting.

To restore your registry database, undergoing a registry scan is the best option. There are also various tweaks and programs on the internet designed to speed up the booting process of your computer. However, be very weary when downloading such programs because these could seriously affect your system or may even carry viruses in your drive.

Keep a backup of your file in a separate disk or pen drive in case something goes wrong. Hopefully, if you stick with the basic steps, then you won’t be facing that problem anytime soon. Luckily, most of these functions are readily available in most systems.