How To Keep Your Computer Speedy

If you are running of Microsoft Windows XP and your computer seems slow, there are things you can do to help you tune up your system -- and hopefully restore some or all of your lost performance. In no particular order, here are some things that should be done every so often to keep your system running at top speed.

Free Up Wasted Space

A good way to recover wasted disk space is to use the Disk Cleanup tool by following these steps:

1. Open My Computer

2. Right-click Local Disk

3. Click Properties

4. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. The Disk Cleanup function will spend a few minutes examining your disk.

5. After the “examination”, the Disk Cleanup dialog box will open.

6. Select the desired check boxes in the Files to Delete list. Our suggestion would be to select any temporary files that you may have.

7. Once you select your files, click OK. Disk Cleanup will spend several minutes clearing space. If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk listed in My Computer.

Remove Unused Programs

Unused programs can take up valuable space on your computer. They might also be clogging up your registry and hogging valuable system resources. If you aren't using them, you can get rid of them.

1. Go to Start Menu

2. Select Settings

3. Select Control Panel

4. Select Add or Remove Programs

5. Select Programs that you do not use and click the “Remove” button

Defragment Hard Drives

Over time, the files on your drives become more and more fragmented. When a file is fragmented, it takes longer for the computer to read it because it has to skip to different sections of the hard disk. Defragmenting your drives may take some time, but if your files are significantly fragmented, defragging can give you a pretty nice performance boost. The Windows XP defragmentation tool is pretty good to use and gets the job done. To access it:

1. Open My Computer

2. Right-click Local Disk

3. Click Properties

4. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now

5. After the Disk Defragmenter opens, click your first hard disk, and then click Defragment Disk Defragmenter will work for at least several minutes, though it may take several hours. If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk.

If you want to upgrade (for free) to a better defragging tool, you can try Auslogic’s Disk Defrag tool at http://www.auslogics.com. From their site: "Auslogics Disk Defrag is extremely simple to use, does not require any analysis phase and is faster than most of the other disk defragmentation software. It will help you get the maximum performance out of your expensive hardware investments. And, what's most important, it's absolutely free."

Update Hardware Drivers

Make sure you have installed the latest versions of all your hardware drivers. Usually these can be downloaded directly from your computer manufacturer's website but if you have added components like a printer to your computer, you may need to go to the company's website for the drivers. You can use your favorite search engine to find your computer manufacturer’s website.

Add Memory

If you don't have at least 512MB of RAM on your computer and you are running Windows XP, you are suffering needlessly. If the memory for your system is fairly inexpensive, you should consider upgrading to 2GB or 4GB for the best performance. To see how much RAM your computer has:

1. Go to Start Menu

2. Select Settings

3. Select Control Panel

4. Select System

5. Your RAM specs should be on the “General” tab

6. Contact your computer’s manufacture to learn more about add more memory.

Install Latest Updates

Make sure you have the latest and greatest operating system updates and service packs installed.

1. Go To Start Menu

2. Select Windows Update

Following any or any of these tips will help speed up Windows XP running on your computer or laptop.

---