How To Keep Your PC Running Fast

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We always seem to spend most of our time waiting on our PC’s, with all the advances in technology it seems that our computers are always trying to keep up with us. We can blame our “cheap” PC’s, that were expensive when we bought them and say their full of viruses. But really the only way to keep a PC running fast and smooth is to maintain it from the very beginning. When you first bought your PC you showed it off to your friends and they all marveled at how fast and quick it was, now your embarrassed to show it to them because you’ve slowed it down with all the useless junk you’ve installed.

Like a car engine that needs regular maintenance, so does your PC, albeit a different sort of maintenance. Follow some of these steps to help keep your PC running smoothly and quickly.

Stop unneccesary processes:

When you install a program, they regularly add an additional process and sometimes more than one. These processes are usually useless and all they achieve is slowing down your computer. To disable unneccesary processes follow these steps:

1. For Windows 7 & Vista, press start and type msconfig, then hit enter. On Windows XP, go start then run and type msconfig followed by enter
2. Then under the start up tab you can view the process set to start each time you boot up your PC.
3. The ones with a tick are set to start, look through them and untick any that are obvious that you don’t need. But be sure to keep your antivirus programs ticked! For ones that you are unsure – you can search them and decide whether or not you need them here http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
4. Then once you’ve unticked all the unnecceary ones, hit apply and restart your machine.

Delete Unneeded Files:

We all have randomly created files and folders all over our desktop and random games installed. Every so often, maybe once a month, just take time to go and delete files you may have copies of, or uninstall games and programs you never use. Also empty your recycle bin.

Run Disk Cleanup:

Windows comes with a built in tool that helps you clean up your drive, simply go to start and type in disk cleanup in Windows 7. For Windows XP go start -> all programs -> system tools -> disk cleanup.

Then select the drive you want to clean up and let it do its thing.

Defragment Your Computer

De fragmenting your computer is one of the most important things you can do for your PC and should be done on a regular basis. Imagine your computers hard drive is like a library and all the files are in alphabetical order so their easy to find. But then someone goes and re orders them all so there not in alphabetical order, of course it will take longer to find what your looking for and that’s exactly what happens to your PC.

De fragmenting reorders all these files so it’s easier for your PC to find them next time your looking for them. To do it simply go to start and type in disk defragmenter and hit enter. Then select the hard drive you want to defragment and let it do its thing, it will take a while so maybe set it to work when your out.

You may also consider setting a schedule so your PC stays on top of things and does it automatically for you.

Move Your Files:

Consider investing in an external hard drive, you can buy 500GB for less than €100 easily enough these days. You can use it to back up important data but what you can also do is move a whole load of data over to it. Move all your pictures, video and music over to an external hard drive to save space on your PC and as a result your PC will have to plough through less files next time it goes looking for something. Get into the habit of saving things onto your external hard drive and set it as the default save location.

Good Antivirus Protection:

Viruses, worm, spyware and trojans are all likely suspects responsible for slowing down a PC. But another factor slowing down your PC could be your anti-virus protection itself. Personally I recommend Norton 2010 ( I know old Norton versions were system hogs but can assure you things have changed ) Eset Smart Security and Microsoft Security Essentials ( Free option ) . I have used all of these programs and can personally say they all do a good job at keeping my system clean without impacting performance. I currently use Microsoft Security Essentials and haven’t had any infections since I changed to it.

Also be sure to let your anti-virus update daily, most do this automatically but just make sure this option is turned on. It’s also a good idea to let Windows Update download and install updates for your machine automatically.

Back Up:

This won’t really make your PC run any faster but it would be a shame if all your pictures and music etc… was lost if your computer crashed one day. Backing Up does take a while but needs to be done, a little Googling :-) will give you plenty of software to choose from, Windows 7 also comes with its own back up software just go to start and type back up and hit enter

So there you have it, a list of options available to you that will hopefully keep your PC running smooth and fast. But remember, no matter how diligent you are with maintenance, de fragmenting and anti-virus protection, your computer will never be as fast as the day it first arrived ;-)

Follow these tips and you should be able to keep your PC running fast and smooth, please post any additional suggestions or comments you may have in the comments section below.

Oh and lots of Mac Fan boys normally say : ” Just buy a Mac ” well I’m sorry but it will slow down as well so that’s not the solution :-)

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