The Simple Things I Did To Speed up My Computer
I recently noticed my computer was slow to respond and producing errors. Now I’m going to tell you the simple things I did to speed up my computer with the help of a registry cleaner. Before I get into the specific tasks, I want to explain what the registry is. Within your computer system, the registry is a catalogue of sorts that the operating system accesses every time an action is performed. For example, when I run Microsoft Windows, the computer searches through the registry for files to open and run the program. Because I constantly install/uninstall programs for my home business, extraneous files are left within the registry causing my computer to run slowly. In fact, I started to receive various error messages that caused not only frustration, but it also was wreaking havoc on my work.
The first step in any computer maintenance is to backup whatever you’re about to work on. If you have a backup program, use it. While basic cleaning on your computer comes with only a very small risk of data loss, you can never be too careful. If you don’t have a backup program, you should strongly consider getting one. There are plenty of web-based companies that can store your data for only a few dollars a month. If you have important information on your computer, it’s very much worth the money.
When I searched for ways to speed up my computer, one of the most common pieces of advice I came across was to run a registry cleaner. While it should be a part of every computer’s routine maintenance, very few people actually know the importance of running a registry cleaner. Your registry is the brain of your operating system and it can become cluttered very quickly. Running a cleaner can free up hard drive space and speed up your computer. However, you may want to be cautious around free programs. They may not come with all the features you need or they may be poorly written. Typically though, registry cleaners are very straight forward to use. Run the backup utility they come with, then run the cleaner.
The next thing I did was I ran defragmentation tool on my computer. The disk degramenter is found in the “system tools” within the Accessories folder in Windows XP. Your computer reads everything including fragmented files, and this takes time which slows up your computer’s performance. When you defragment your hard drive, you basically put your computer’s files in the right order so that it runs more efficiently.
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.
I get impatient with all of the programs that autostart. It is most annoying when I am accessing the hard disk for important files, and I have to wait for all of these programs to open. I finally went into the “system configuration tool”, and modified the programs that I didn’t need to autostart. Some of these programs like chat software and musicdownloads can attach themselves to your startup wthout you even knowing it so it’s definitely worth a try to find out.
These were the very simple things I did to speed up my computer. It didn’t take a ton of time and money; only some basic maintenance and reliable utility tools like the registry cleaner Registry Mechanic by PC Tools. If you are looking for improved performance and efficiency in your computer, follow these same steps and you should notice some improvement too.
