How do I speed up my PC?

It’s an age old problem affecting all PC users- your computer has slowed down to almost a standstill.  Before you throw it out the window, there are several simple tips and tricks you can try first that will hopefully help speed up your system and bring it back to life.

Please note: An updated and more detailed article, incorporating suggestions from readers, on how to speed up your PC  is now available.

Overtime, a PC’s hard drive can become overly cluttered with temporary files, downloaded files, old emails, hundreds of photos and tons of other things that begin to put a heavy load on your system’s resources.  Depending on the resources available on your system, once your hard drive becomes almost full, its overall performance is severely compromised.  Luckily, Windows includes several utilities that help clear everything up and distinguish which files are safe to delete.

Starting with the most simple, you should regularly run a “Disk Cleanup,” and a “Disk Defragmentation,” which are two utilities built-in to Windows XP and Vista.  Disk cleanup will identify files on your computer that aren’t necessary and are safe for deletion.  Disk Cleanup will clear your recycle bin, remove temporary internet files, remove downloaded program files, remove Windows-based temporary files, and even remove software that it knows you don’t use very often.  To run it, click “Start,” and choose “All Programs,” and then “Accessories.”  Under “System Tools,” choose Disk Cleanup, and choose which drive you’d like to clean (only if you have more than one).

Likewise, the Disk Defragmentation utility is located under “System Tools” as well.  This should also be used every few months along with the Disk Cleanup utility.  Over time, your hard drive get fragmented- meaning bits and pieces of information for files and software are spread all over the hard drive making retrieval and overall performance much slower.  Defragmentation will organize the files on your hard drive to make them easier to find and open, which in turn speed up your system.  Windows also recommends running the Defragmentation Tool anytime your hard drive’s free space is less than 15 percent, you add a large number of files, or install new programs or a new version of Windows.  Running both utilities at pre-determined intervals will take care of a lot of speed problems, and make your life easier in the long run.

Beyond simple disk cleaning and re-organizing, there’s some more advanced steps you can take to speed things up a bit.  Checking the integrity of the files stored on your hard drive is a good idea as well, and in fact, Microsoft recommends doing so every week if you use your computer on a daily basis (and who doesn’t).  As you use your hard drive overtime, it can develop bad sectors.  Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible.  Luckily, Windows includes the Error Checking Utility, which scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.  Bad sectors happen all the time on most hard drives, especially older ones.

To run the utility, go to “My Computer,” and right-click on the drive you want to check for errors (usually just the C: drive).  Click “properties,” and go to the “tools” tab.  Click the “Check Now” button and when the dialog box appears, select “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.”  After it’s done, if it finds anything, simply click “fix sectors.”  Most people think about disk cleanup and defragmentation, but dismiss bad sectors on their hard drive when usually it’s the main source of a major slowdown.  Just a few bad sectors on a hard drive can completely shut one down, or make one or two programs unable to open until they’re fixed.

Like your hard drive, your system registry is a place that needs some clean-up as well, and often gets neglected by PC users.  When you install and remove programs in Windows, it places files in your registry which don’t always get erased like they’re supposed to.  Overtime, a buildup of random program files can confuse Windows, especially during startup, and cause some slowdown.  While Windows doesn’t really have a specific tool built-in for this, there’s numerous free alternatives available online that will scan your registry and remove any unwanted clutter.  Again, it’s a good idea to run this type of utility every so often to keep things running smoothly.  Just do a quick Google search for “free Windows registry scanner and cleaner.”

If you’ve done all the house cleaning you can do on your hard drive and registry, it’s time to take a look at your system’s memory usage.  If you’re running an older PC, your RAM may be out of date and in need of updating.  If you notice major slowing when you open more and more programs, or are working with something that might be resource-intensive, it may be time to upgrade your RAM.  In Windows, if it starts to run low on RAM, it automatically creates “virtual memory,” which is essentially a chunk of your hard drive that is used as an extension of your normal RAM-based memory.  Forcing Windows to use virtual memory is a very slow process and causes many errors, so upgrading your RAM and making sure Windows never has to use virtual memory is the way to go.

If you’re running a system with Windows Vista, you can utilize the “PowerBoost” function, which will actually use flash-based memory such as a USB stick for system memory.  It essentially extends the amount of RAM on your system by the space available on your USB drive.  It’s an easy and in-expensive way to boost your memory without having to open up your computer.  Also, if you only need a memory boost for certain functions or programs, it’s a perfect solution.  PowerBoost also helps Windows Vista shy away from using virtual memory, which we know causes major slowing in the end.

Hopefully taking these steps and using these utilities will help speed up your system.  Remember to first isolate the problem, whether it has to do with your hard drive or your memory, and go from there.  Run any and all utilities available to you on a monthly basis to keep things running as efficiently as possible, and hopefully you won’t notice a slow down again for a long time.

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