How do I speed up my Windows PC computer?

After weeks, months, or years of use, a personal computer (PC) tends to slow down enough that you can notice it. Here are some tips and tricks to bring your Windows PC back up to speed.

The file system

Every time you use your computer, the operating system creates new files and moves other files around on your hard disk. As the number of files grow and become segmented (parts of a file stored in different spots) it takes longer to locate and work with these files. Since working with files is one of the primary tasks your system performs, the decrease in speed often becomes noticeable. Window includes two major utilities to help you alleviate these problems: Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter.

It is also possible for your drive(s) to develop bad sectors which are not usable for data storage. There is also a utility (Check Disk) to locate and attempt to repair, or take out of service, any bad sectors that could be getting between you and efficient operation. Some version of each of these utilities are shipped with all Windows systems still supported by Microsoft, and some that are not. The directions below are for Vista, but will be similar for other versions of Windows, unless otherwise noted. You should probably run these tests in the specific order given below. Before we start deleting and moving things, we should check the condition of the disk.

Disk Check – In order to do that, start your computer and open My Computer. You will see the list of available disk drives, which may include CD-ROM drives and floppy disks. Generally, it is not helpful to check these sorts of drives. However, if you have more than one hard disk in your system, each must be analyzed and repaired independently.

Right click on one of the hard disk drives and select “Properties” and then the “Tools” tab. That will bring up the the following window:

Under error-checking, click “Check now” (circled in red). Then select “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” on the window that pops up next, which looks like this:

Check your settings, then click the “Start” command button. It will take several minutes for this process to run, depending on the speed of your CPU and the size of the hard disk.

If you are trying to check the hard disk that contains Windows (usually Drive C:), the operating system will say that the system will run the check at the next restart. At this point you should save any work that you have open and reboot the computer. It will seem like the computer is starting very slowly. That is because it is checking your hard disk. Give it plenty of time. If you listen closely, you should be able to hear the sound of your hard disk working very hard. Depending on your OS version and settings, the system may show diagnostics on your monitor while this check is taking place.

Whether checking from Windows (a non-system disk) or during startup (the system disk), the test will end and probably display some analysis and repair statistics. Take a look at these, and write down anything that seems extreme to you so that you can ask a geek friend about them later. If all has gone well, your disk should now be free of bad sectors and any pointer or other file errors should have been repaired.

Disk Cleanup – Next, we will run the program that is used to free up space on your hard disk. Windows actually comes with a good tool for cleaning unused and unnecessary files from your hard disk. The program is called Disk Cleanup and it is delivered free with every Vista system. The cleanup process involves searching and analyzing the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use. Next, the program removes the unnecessary files, freeing up disk space on the hard drive. There are a number of different file categories that Disk Cleanup targets when performing the initial disk analysis:

Compression of old files
Temporary Internet files
Temporary Windows file
Downloaded Program files
Recycle Bin
Removal of unused applications or optional Windows components
Setup Log files
Offline files

The above list, however, is neither exhaustive nor complete. As an example, the options ‘Temporary Remote Desktop files’ and ‘Temporary Sync Files’ may appear only under certain computer configurations, depending on how the computer is being used and what functions are being used.

Aside from removing unnecessary files, users also have the option of compressing files that have not been accessed over a set time period of time. This option provides a systematic compression scheme. Infrequently accessed files are compressed to free up disk space while leaving the frequently used files uncompressed for faster read/write access times. If, after file compression, you want to access a compressed file, the access times may be increased, since they will need to be decompressed before use.

In addition to the categories that appear on the Disk Cleanup tab, the More Options tab offers additional options for freeing up hard drive space through removal of optional Windows components, installed programs, and all but the most recent System Restore point or Shadow Copy data.

Run Disk Cleanup by clicking on Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally on Disk Cleanup. If you are system administrator, you can clean up files for all system users. You may be asked to enter your admin credentials in order to do this. If you are only a system user, you can only clean up your own files.

There are a few decisions to make first. If you have more than one hard disk drive partition on your system, you will need to select which one you want to clean. Then you will need to decide which types of files that you want to remove from your system using the check boxes in the Disk Cleanup Window. A few tips on which box does which may help you decide what to do about certain options.

Downloaded Program Files – These files are usually ActiveX controls and Java applets downloaded from Web sites that are temporarily stored in the Downloaded Program Files folder. It’s not program files or zip files that you have downloaded from other locations. These can usually be safely deleted.

Temporary Internet Files – This refers to Internet Explorer’s cache of Web pages that are stored on the hard drive for quicker viewing. None of your personal web settings are affected by selecting this category, nor does it delete any cookie files. These files are generally safe to delete as well.

Office Setup Files – Sometimes you will see entries on the file list for specific applications that you have upgraded or patched. If the application in question works well, you can probably safely delete these files.

Recycle Bin – The important thing to remember about this category is that it usually only refers to the Recycle Bin for the selected hard drive or partition. This is important since some Windows systems use an individual Recycle Bin for each drive and partition, not just one as was the case in earlier Windows versions. These files are generally safe to delete.

Temporary Remote Desktop Files – These files are left on a system when you use the Remote Desktop utility. If you often use Remote Desktop with the same computers, leaving these files where they are will increase the speed of future connections. Deleting them will force the remote software to download the remote system’s icons and wallpaper the next time a connection is established.

Setup Log Files – These are the log files that are created when you install applications. If the applications have been working properly after installation, it is probably safe to delete these files.

Backup Files For Previous Operating System – You may never see this category, but if you upgraded from a previous Windows version and selected the option to be able to uninstall the new system, those files may still be living on your system. It takes some major hard drive space to copy all the files necessary to back up a previous system’s core files, drivers, etc. These files may be using anywhere from a few hundred megabytes up to a gigabyte, so unless you are likely to go back to the previous OS, this will save a lot of space.

Compress Old Files – Some people like file compression, others do not. After a file has been compressed, it takes longer to open it since it must first be decompressed. There is also some danger of the file being broken during manipulation, so some people choose not to compress. If you are really short on room, you may want to do this, but it would also be wise to back them up first.

You can get a better idea of what is about to be deleted by clicking on the View Files button. That will cause Windows to display the files that will be deleted if the currently selected item in the file type list is checked. You might spot something that you don’t want deleted. If you do, leave the selected file type unchecked.

When you have looked at all the options and decided what file types to delete, click on OK and Windows will go to work deleting files. This may take quite a long time, even if the drive selected is a small one. Windows needs to check file permissions for each file before it is deleted, and has to insure that the target files were actually deleted during the program run. A system error log is generated by Disk Cleanup each time it is run.

There are also more choices for Disk Cleanup under the More Options tab. Each of these options addresses a different kind of file that can be deleted from your machine. The first of these offers to remove Windows components that you do not use. The second deletes file for programs that you do not use. The last removes all but the last restore point that you or the system has set.

Unless you are really critically low on disk space, these are not recommended. The system could delete programs that you have paid for and intend to use, and it could delete your only good restore point. Use these options with caution. Each of these runs as soon as you click on the Clean Up button, so be careful where your mouse pointer is.

After you have cleaned out all of the selected files on the selected drive, that disk will probably be badly fragmented. For this reason, you should run the disk defragmenter included with your operating system in order to speed access to the files that remain.

Disk Defragmentation – Disk fragmentation happens when files are changed. An example would be adding text to a Word document. Let us say you are editing File B, which fits exactly between files A and C on your hard disk, with no room to spare. After you have added several pages, you save the file (or Word auto-saves it) and it will no longer fit in the space where it once lived. So the operating system leaves the first part of the file where it was and puts the rest of the file after file C on the disk, with a pointer at the end of the first part to the position of the second part of the file on the disk.

Files of all kinds, of course, tend to grow larger rather than get smaller. Now imagine that happening thousands and thousands of times on your hard disk, turning every 25-page document or video file into 40 widely separated locations on your hard disk, separated by portions of other files in the same condition. This forces the OS to move the read-write head of the disk to forty different locations to read the file instead of reading the whole thing in one fell swoop from the disk in a contiguous location. As you might imagine, this slows the file reading and writing process down considerably. What we want to do is move the bits of files around on the disk until they are once again all in contiguous spots on the disk and therefore very efficient for the system to read.

The defrag tool is located in the same place as the disk checking utility. Again, open “My Computer” from the desktop, right click on the disk you wish to defragment, then select “Tools” and click on the command button marked “Defragment Now.” The tool selection window looks like this with the Disk Defragmenter command button circled in red:

At this point, what happens next changes depending on whether you are running Vista or an earlier version of the operating system. Beginning with Windows Vista, Microsoft significantly dumbed down the defragmentation utility. In Vista, the screen you see after pressing “Defragment Now” looks like this.

As you can see, there are not many choices any more. You can decide not to defragment the disk on a schedule, which is a bad idea, because the disk eventually needs this process to be run. If you use your computer a lot, it needs to be run often. You can change the time and day of the week that Vista runs the defrag utility. You should do this if it is set to run at a time when you are usually using the computer. Set it for a time when you are likely to be in bed for a few hours, since the defrag process eats up a lot of resources and tends to slow your system down significantly.

Or, you can choose to have the disk defragmented right now. If you erased a lot of files during the disk cleanup portion of this tutorial, or if a large number of errors were found while checking the disk, it might be wise to simply click on “Defragment now.” With more space and no errors on the drive, there will rarely be a better time defragment the files. It is possible that the system will ask you to run the Disk Check utility again, though it is unlikely since we just ran it as the first step of this process.

There is an alternative option, but it is not for the faint of heart. The disk defrag utility can be run from the command line, a place where large numbers of PC users have never been. The command line interface, and the operation of the defrag utility using it, is beyond the experience level of most people that will be reading these words. If you would like instructions on using the command line version, leave us a comment to that effect. If we get enough requests, we will do a post on this subject.

If you are running a version of Windows earlier than Vista, the process is completely different. We will use Windows XP as an example, since that is what most non-Vista users are running. Earlier versions work in a very similar way and you should be able to sort out any differences quite easily as you go.

Probably the most common way to get to the defragmentation utility in Windows XP is by clicking on the following series of options: Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Defragmenter. Doing that will cause the following window to appear:

Near the top of this window, you will see a list of the drives that the system can defragment. You should select, by clicking on it, the drive that you have just checked and cleaned in the first two parts of this process. Then click on the “Analyze” command button. The utility will then go out to the drive selected and analyze the degree of fragmentation on the drive. The top graphic window will change to a graphic which shows a representation of this state of fragmentation. The system will also give you a recommendation about whether or not the utility needs to be run, and allow you to view a more detailed fragmentation analysis report..

As noted above, given that you have just checked and repaired the physical disk and the file structure, then removed a large number of files, there may never be a better time to defragment this particular volume. So you probably should go ahead and defragment the drive anyway unless you found no disk or file system errors and did not delete many files during disk cleanup. To start the defrag process, click on the “Defragment”command button. While the disk is being defragmented, the lower graphic area will display a representation of the process.

These three maintenance utilities can be time-consuming, but can also return significant benefits in speed and efficiency. With luck, and if this maintenance was badly needed, you should already be experiencing a faster, more reactive system. If your system still seems slow, the sections below may take care of the problem.

Removal of Malware

Computer malware can be defined as software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. The term “computer virus” is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses. Software is considered malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most root-kits, spyware, dishonest adware, crime-ware and other malicious and unwanted software.

All of this software does something. That’s the point. And if you have enough unwanted software stealing disk space and processing cycles from your computer system, that system is naturally going to seem like it is running slow just because it is busy doing things that you do not know it’s doing. It is not uncommon for an unprotected, unchecked system to have hundreds of pieces of malware running at one time.

Although you do have to be careful where you get software to deal with malware, since some shady programs install more of it than they remove, there are some well-known names in the field that are generally trusted. Please note that these are programs that you use to inspect and clean your system in addition to normal virus protection software and scans.

There are a few trustworthy and free products in this category, though none of them is perfect. Each is a good backup for conventional virus protection programs. Perhaps the best is Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, which is available for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. There is a free version available at this link. The software is very easy to use. Just follow the directions that come with the program. Make sure that you always check for updates before running this software.

You should also do a virus scan while you are at it. You could use your own virus protection software. If you want a second opinion, you could do worse than to download the free version of Avast! Antivirus from this site. You may need to temporarily uninstall your current virus protection program in order to run Avast!. Your geek friends may also be able to recommend programs of this sort for you to use. Again, don’t download any of these programs without a recommendation. If they are themselves malware, you could be letting yourself in for gigantic problems.

After downloading and using these programs or ones recommended by geek friends, and especially those specifically aimed at malware like  Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware program, you may find that your system is considerably faster, especially if a lot of malware was found and removed. If this is the case, you may wish to consider a paid subscription to such a program, to be run regularly on your system to keep malware at bay.

The System Registry

The Windows Registry, introduced long ago with Windows 3.1, is a system database which stores settings and options for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains information and settings for hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, and per-user settings. The registry also provides a window into the operation of the kernel, exposing runtime information such as performance counters and currently active hardware.

So many parts of the system use the registry that it tends to get cluttered and very large. This can slow down the whole system since the registry is accessed so frequently. The Windows Registry is a very complicated place, and even true experts get in trouble editing it by hand. The best answer, should you decide to try this method to gain speed, is probably a commercial registry cleaning product, but you have to be careful.

Why be careful? Because the Registry is the perfect place to hide viruses, Trojan horses, spyware and malware of all kinds. You really need to trust the people that make the registry cleaner that you use. You are literally giving them all the keys to your computer kingdom. It is therefore wise to get your registry cleaner from a company well-versed and well known in the computer security sector. Don’t buy a registry cleaner from a guy in a trench coat in an alley.

Arguably, there are reasons not to use a registry cleaner at all. Because of all that goes into writing such a program, and because of the complexity of the issues involved, it is possible to end up with a non-bootable, unusable or unstable machine through the use of a registry cleaner. This has to be weighed as you make the decision to clean the registry or not.

It is also true that NT-based Windows systems (of which XP and Vista are examples) do not benefit nearly as much from cleaning out the registry, simply because those registries are much more efficient. In the long run, registry cleaning might be more of a danger to your system than a help. Perhaps it would be wise to try everything else first, and only use a registry cleaner as a last resort.

Hardware Remedies

There are some things that you can do from a hardware standpoint to bring some extra speed to your PC. Of course, any expense on an older system needs to be weighed against saving that money for a new system. Moore’s Law says that you can always buy more new speed for less money than your older, slower technology cost. Still, here are a few possibilities to consider.

RAM Memory

The first thing to consider is usually memory. It is often the biggest hardware bang for the buck you can get. Memory, the RAM variety, is important for very simple reasons. RAM is a very fast storage medium, leaving hard disk storage in the dust. And if you do not have enough RAM for the programs that you normally run, your computer uses your hard disk as (virtual) memory overflow, slowing it down perceptibly.

That is because, when physical RAM memory gets close to being full, the operating system begins to shift portions of the programs you are using and the data you are working with out of fast RAM memory and onto the relatively slow hard disk. The OS tries to only shift out the parts that are not being used very often, but the more full your RAM becomes, the more is swapped out to disk. That is what “virtual memory” means. And every write to and read from virtual memory happens at glacial speeds compared to reads and writes from RAM.

If you tend to have a lot of programs open at one time, especially programs that deal with graphics, sound, games, or video are in the mix, you are using a lot of RAM memory. And, if your system was built at a time when memory was expensive, the manufacturer may have skimped on memory due to cost. Another factor to consider is whether or not you have upgraded to newer versions of Windows during the life of your computer. Every new version of Windows consumes more computer resources, as do the programs written for that OS version.

One way to tell is to keep your eyes and ears on your disk drive. Is the activity light almost always on? Can you hear the sound of your disk heads seeking data almost constantly? If you can, maybe you are in need of more memory. Of course, there are multiple ways to skin the computer memory cat.

The first is to buy and install more RAM memory in your system. Since the number of memory slots in most systems are limited, this often involves replacing rather than adding existing memory cards. On the other hand, memory is fairly inexpensive on today’s market. There are several places on the Web where you can find out exactly the memory you need to upgrade, such as this “memory finder” at Crucial.

If you have upgraded your OS, your software, or have any of the other indicators that your system is tight on memory, you should perhaps double your current amount of RAM, going from 512MB to 1GB, from 1GB to 2gB, etc. Unless your needs are really special, you probably will not get any improvement over 4GB. Some older systems will only hold so much memory, so there may be a system-imposed limit on how far you can go. Memory is not particularly difficult to remove and install, in either a desktop or a laptop, as long as you purchase quality memory of the right type and follow the rules.

Ready Boost

We should mention one other type of memory upgrade that is available to Windows Vista users. It is a system function called Ready Boost and is able to use the flash memory in a USB stick as system memory. It is added as a footnote because flash memory is not nearly as fast as RAM. It is a different kind of memory that has access speeds somewhere between those of a disk drive and those of RAM. Using Ready Boost may increase the speed of your computer slightly, but it is no substitute for RAM.

Video Card

Another possibility is a faster video card. Even if you have a fast CPU and enough RAM memory, you may have a slow video card, which could keep you from seeing the speed available to you. This is especially true with graphic-intensive applications such as video processing, graphics editors, and games. If you have what you feel is a fast enough CPU and sufficient RAM, but Photoshop draws slowly or games don’t refresh quickly enough, you may need a new video card.

This is especially true if you bought a desktop computer intended for running word processing and email, plus perhaps doing simple graphics, and you have now graduated to software with more intense video processing needs. One good indication is to open the Windows System Monitor and watch the CPU usage while performing a graphics-intensive operation, such as playing a complex game, processing video onscreen or displaying a mammoth file in Photoshop.

Then do the same thing while watching memory usage. If your processor usage is not extremely high and you are not using most of your RAM, but the screen updates are happening relatively slowly, there may be a bottleneck in the video area. Look up the specs for your video card, even if it is built into your motherboard. Multiply those specs (speed, memory) by two or four times and look into buying a new video board, balancing the cost against the likely gain in system speed. A better video card can produce more system speed, all other things being equal.

Replace Your System

If none of these things work, it might be time for a new system if speed has become that much of an issue. Think of it as the ultimate upgrade. Remember that you can buy more processing power for less money as time goes on. A new system will solve a lot of problems, as long as you bear in mind that it is always smart to purchase all the computer you can afford and remember to worry about CPU speed, drive speed, the amount of memory available, the bus speed (if any), and the quality of the video card. Sometimes the best upgrade answer is a replacement.

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