Speed PC Up from Slow Windows

A quick and easy way to make your Windows XP computer start faster.

Here’s How:

• Find the ‘My Computer’ icon on your desktop and Right Click on it.

• Click on ‘Properties’ from the menu box.

• Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab on the top right side.

• Click ‘Settings’ under the lower ‘Startup and Recovery’ section.

• Change the time from it’s default (normally 30 secs) to 5-8 secs. Or whatever time you prefer.

• Click OK.

• Click OK again.

That’s It. Job Done – your computer will now start a lot faster than before.

Cheers

Remove Autostart Programs

If you’re finding that your Windows XP computer is running much slower than you would like then this tip will help to speed it up and get it back running the way it should be.

When a Windows XP computer starts up, it automatically loads and starts any program that is set in the startup folder – regardless of whether you need it or are going to use it. To avoid this, try these steps – but REMEMBER to make a backup and/or system restore point before making any changes. 

These programs often configure themselves to run in the background so that they seem to start quickly when needed. For some of these programs you will see an icon on your taskbar, while others are completely hidden. Now although they won’t slow down your computer too much when it starts up, they will however use up memory and processing power when your computer is running.

I use Windows XP’s own System Configurationtool (Msconfig.exe) to manage these startup processes.

1. Click ‘Start’, click ‘Run’, type in Msconfig and press ‘Enter’
   
2. On the ‘Startup’ tab you’ll see a list of all programs set to run when Windows starts
3. Select any program you think you don’t need by checking the box next to it
4. Click ‘Apply’ and then restart your computer for the chnges to take effect.

A good way to check which of these programs you need is to use the Autoruns freeware tool from Sysinternals. Autoruns lists every program that will automatically start and allows you to quickly delete the link to the program. Many autostart entries are important parts of Windows XP, including Userinit.exe and Explorer.exe.

Note: Do not simply delete anything that you don’t recognize. Check first and always set a Restore Point beforehand.

This helped speed my pc up by about 40%, as it’s had so many programs installed and I don’t even use half of them. So, goodbye old programs and hello faster pc.  

What hardware should I buy to speed up PC games?

Being a PC gamer myself , several of my friends and fellow gamers have sometimes mentioned that they recently noticed that their games are slowing down and lagging, and they wanted to know what hardware would be best to buy to speed up those games. 

My initial comment is always "Before buying any hardware you might want to do some basic cleanup". It’s amzing how many regular gamers almost never clean up their machines and have games on their hard drives which haven’t been played for months or even years.

In My Computer, right-click on C: and select Properties. Then select Disk Cleanup. I also uncheck the Disk compression option, but you can leave the other options checked.

Then on the Tools tab, click Error-checking — Check now and Defragmentation — Defragment now.

In terms of hardware upgrades, adding RAM is usually the best bang for the buck. If you are talking about graphics intensive games, obviously a more powerful video card helps. Faster processor or upgrade to dual or quad core processor speeds things up.

I also recommend downloading the free utility CCleaner. Install it and run the registry check. Select Fix all errors and always take the option to create a registry backup when it is offered. Then set it to clean your machine and it will remove all old temporary files and any old data that hasn’t been used for a long time. The list of options may look quite scary the first time you run it, but once you have set it up it will make a huge difference in keeping your machine clean. A great side benefit of this is that if you run it also after every time you have been online in the internet, it will also clean your surfing history.

Simple Screenshot Program for Windows XP 

 
There are many tools available for anyone who wants to take screenshots of their computer screen, but my favourite and the easiest I have found (and it’s Free) is called PicPick.

PicPick is a Screenshot program which also includes built in image editing tools – so once you have taken your screenshot you can then also edit it as you would any other image (Crop, Blur, Sharpen, Rotate etc) and then save it anywhere and in any format you want.

You can set Hotkeys for most of the functions and can easily set it up to capture the fullscreen, part of the screen, the active window or any other user defined region.

Have Fun.
 

How to Safely & Completely Remove Programs.

Over time, most of us install many different programs on our computers – whether it’s to try them out and then we forget them, or whether we use them for some time and then install and use a better program; our computers very easily become clogged up with unwanted programs which seriously slow down our machines.

The problem with this is that when we do try and uninstall them, they often leave behind some files or folders which it seems are almost impossible to get rid of. And that is besides all those entries in the registry which your computer is constantly looking for. The registry (used for storing information about where and how programs are installed on your computer) can be a major cause of slow windows computers.

So, if you are looking to simply clean your machine up a bit or you have a problem with removing a particular program, I recommend using RevoUninstaller. This is a program which works in a similar way to the standard Windows Remove Programs function, but goes much deeper into your machine when you select a program to uninstall.

I use RevoUninstaller with the default settings (Moderate) and what this will do for you is not only remove the program which you have selected but will also search through your computer and find any references to that program wherever they may be (registry, hidden folders etc). Once the program itself has been uninstalled, Revo gives you the option to remove all this additional data as well and this will ensure your machine is cleaner and runs much faster.

Additionally, Revo automatically sets a Restore Point before removing any programs so if something should go wrong with your machine after the uninstall, it is a very easy job just to quickly restore to how it was before you removed the program.

I discovered RevoUninstaller some time ago and have religously used it on all my computers since, and even now some of the developers and software guys I work with also use it as it is really a 1 click unistaller.

Try it out and see what you think. 

Cheers