How to Speed up Slow Computer

This article is for lay people to speed up the computer. You can do all of these steps or any of them. Start from easiest and most effective. If restart of computer required, don’t do it until all steps you selected have finished.

1. Killing some unnecessary running processes to speed up immediately. 3 minutes. However, if you do any of following step 7, Limit how many programs run at startup, please skip this because it is a duplicated effort. Start Task Manager, click tab Applications. End all tasks you are currently not in use. Then click tab Processes. Any processes from Acrobat, Ebay, Google are unnecessary; end these processes.

2. Run Windows Performance troubleshooter. 3 minute. Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting. Under System and Security, click Check for performance issues.

3. Turn off visual effects. 3 minutes. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type Performance Information and Tools, and then, in the list of results, click Performance Information and Tools. Click Adjust visual effects.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Click the Visual Effects tab, click Adjust for best performance, and then click OK. (For a less drastic option, select Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer.)

4. Set virtual memory page size. 3 minutes. Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel. Click advanced system settings in Control panel. In Advanced tab, in Performance pace, click Settings. In Performance Options window, click Advanced tab, in Virtual memory pane, click Changing. If number of Recommended is equal or larger than Currently allocated, do nothing. Else, unclick Automatically manage paging file size for all drivers, click Custom size. Put number of Recommended at Initial box, and double of that at Maximum box. Click Set then Ok, then Apply then Ok, then Ok again.

5. Enable Superfetch service. 3 minutes. May need to restart your computer. Run services.msc > double-click on the Superfetch service > set Startup type to enabled then Start the service.

6. Turn off indexing service. 30 minutes. In Windows Explorer, select drives one by one, Right click the mouse, select Properties. In pop-up window, in General Tab, at bottom unselect Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties.

7. Limit how many programs run at startup. 30 minutes. Need to restart your computer. Run msconfig, in System Configuration, click tab Startup. Only Antivirus service like Avira Free Antivirus, Battery Management, Energy Management, Power Management, Synaptics Pointing Device Drive are necessary. Anything from Adobe, APSDeamon, Egis, Fax, Google, HomeGroup, IP Helper, Java, Manufacturer software like Acre Dell HP IBM Lenovo, Microsoft Security Client, mwlDeamon, Network Access Protection Agent, Offline Files, OOTag, ooVoo, Parental Controls, QuickTime, RealPlayer, Smart Card, SuiteTray, Tablet PC Input Service, Trillian, Winamp, Windows Media are unnecessary.

8. Uninstall unnecessary software. This may also help to remove hidden spyware. Say, 30 minutes. Need to restart your computer. Uninstall following software Symantec (Install other antivirus software instead), all kind of browser’s toolbar, Your PC manufacturers pack new computers with programs you didn't order and might not want.

9. Disable all add-ons in all browsers. 30 minutes including googling.

10. Remove all cookies. 30 minutes including googling.

11. Clean up old files. Say, 2 hours. Open Windows Explorer, right click any hard driver, in General tab, click Disk Cleanup. It would take 2 hours for system to scan. After that, select all files to be cleaned up.

12. Defragment hard disk. Say, 3 hours. Open Windows Explorer, right click any hard driver, click tab Tools, click Defragmentation. Then start to defragment.

13. Check for viruses and spyware. Say, 6 hours. If you have not already installed the antivirus software, install then. The best free software are Windows Security Essential and Avira.

14. Clean up computer. Say, 10 hours. Need to restart your computer. Open Windows Explorer, right click any hard driver, click tab Tools, in Error-checking pane, click Checking now. In new small window, click all options and start it. You may need to restart computer to enable it.

15. Dedicate an old USB flash memory (between 250MB to 32GB, larger is better) for Readyboost, 3 minutes. Insert USD, in AutoPlay select Speed up my system – using Windows Readyboost. Use it all times.