Professional Technology Blog

Is your computer slow starting up? Does the desktop screen take forever to load?

Do you always have to wait and wait after Windows loads before you can begin to work? Slow computers are usually said to be a sign that your PC is underpowered and badly in need of some more RAM memory, though this is not always the case.

Very often the problem is not hardware related at all, but software related, and a few quick, simple adjustments is all that’s needed to get your computer back up to speed.

Best of all you don’t have to be an IT expert to use these techniques, these are simple little tweaks that any Windows user can do, quickly and safely.

1. Turn off your sound.

Windows sound files can take up a large amount of memory when played, like for example, on start-up. Turning these sounds off will have a dramatic effect on start-up times and system performance in general.

Setting your sounds scheme to “no sounds” does not disable your computer’s audio, it simply means that Windows will no longer play the welcome music on start-up, nor will it play all those blips and clicks when you click on or close applications.

2. Active Desktop and Themes.

First check to see if Active Desktop is disabled. If not disable it and disable any themes that are being used. If you wish to use a screen saver use one of the generic Windows ones rather than a third party one. Photo slideshow screensavers should also be avoided.

3. Performance Settings.

Your performance settings are under the Advanced tab in System Properties. (Right click on My Computer and select Properties) Click on the Settings button and under “Performance Options” select “Adjust for Best Performance”. This disables all the inbuilt scrolling and shadow effects and other graphical eye-candy that serve no real purpose.

4. Disable Automatic Updates.

Automatic Updates not only slow down system performance but also your internet connection. Disable them via Control Panel and install Windows Updates manually instead.

5. Uninstall unnecessary programs.

Go into your Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and have a look down through the list. Is there anything there you could get rid of? I bet there’s at least one program you haven’t used in months. I bet there’s even one or two that you installed once and never used since.

6. Disc cleanup.

Launch the Disc Cleanup tool. Select the drive or drives you want to clean then follow the on-screen instructions to free up space and clear out unnecessary files.

7. Defrag it!

How long has it been since you defragged your hard drive? Never? Well then it’s about time you ran the Disc Defrag tool. This tool will then go through your hard drive or drives and tidy up all the files and put them all together so it can read them from the disc quicker and easier.

Don’t expect it to be done in a hurry though, you’re best off to set the computer to defrag overnight, or, failing that, you’ll want to put on several cups of strong coffee.

These techniques can be used in either Windows XP or Windows Vista, though the exact location of certain tools or menus may differ. Additional information can be found in your Windows help files or via a quick Google search.

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