Anyone with a Windows PC knows that the operating system tends to slow down over time. Windows isn’t optimised for speed; most computers will continue working just fine until replaced with an upgrade, but they will gradually slow down to a snail’s pace that is almost unbelievably different from their initial behaviour. This has many Windows users wondering how to speed up their PCs beyond deleting useless programs and occasionally defragmenting their hard drive. These are both very important tasks, but there are a few more things you can do to rescue your PC from eternal sleep.
First of all, it’s entirely likely that some processes are starting up with your computer, slowing it down from the minute you turn it on to the minute you turn it off, without producing any real benefit to you. For example, if you have an iPod or iPhone, using iTunes will add to startup a little program called “iTunesHelper.exe”. If you ditch the hardware or software, this file will still exist and run on startup, slowing your computer down significantly.
To find superfluous programs, open up Windows Task Manager and select Processes. This will show you all the programs that are currently running on your PC. If you click on memory, you’ll be able to see which programs are hogging up your physical memory and CPU usage. If you don’t recognise a program (and you won’t recognise most of them) but the description doesn’t help, simply do a Google search on it. You will almost always find a definition and that will help you decide whether or not you need it.
To stop a process from running, simply right click on its name and choose end process. Be careful not to stop programs that are essential to your system, like taskmgr.exe. You may discover an unpleasant surprise when your taskbar disappears or your graphics card stops working. The good thing is that if you stop a process in the task manager, it will be restored if you restart your computer, but it’s best to avoid that circumstance.
You can also improve startup speed by preventing some of those unnecessary, bloating programs from starting in the first place. To find your list of startup programs, type “msconfig” into your search bar on Vista and 7 and into the “run” box on XP. Then choose the startup tab, where you’ll see all the programs that start with your PC. Be a little more selective with this list as a restart won’t cure any problems you create for yourself. For example, don’t uncheck the Windows operating system, or you may cause more problems than you solve! But if you don’t need any instant messengers starting with your computer, for example, uncheck them and don’t look back.
Let us know if these tips help you speed up your computer!