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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Billl Gates" data-source="post: 4918395" data-attributes="member: 97732">HowTo: Speed up a very slow computerWhat To Do When . . .Your Computer Is Running Very Slowly Speed Up A Sloth-Like PC With These Tips What happened to your heavy-duty speed-demon system? All those megabytes of memory, big bad buses, and CPU clock cycles haven't kept your PC from drifting into the slow lane. This isn't just the gradual degradation most PCs undergo over time. But there haven't been any major blowups, either. So what gives? A number of factors, having little to do with the age or capabilities or your system, can create excruciating system slowness. The Windows OS (operating system) is notoriously inefficient, which can affect performance. The file system also impacts Windows and hardware performance. How you work with applications can improve system speed, as can some basic hardware updates. Try the easy steps below to get your system back into the fast lane. <a href="http://www.smartcomputing.com/images/smartcomputing/fullsize/00820109.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.smartcomputing.com/images/smartcomputing/fullsize/00820109.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a> Windows' Disk Cleanup utility will help you free up hard drive space, giving Windows and other applications more room to work. Operating System. The operating system is a critical piece of software that has a great influence on the overall performance of your PC. There are many things you can do within the OS that will help speed up a slow computer. Limit startup programs. The wrong startup programs can slow down your PC at boot time and beyond. Unnecessary startup applications not only bog down the boot process, but they also run (often hidden) in the background and consume valuable system resources. Too many background applications will eventually leave nothing left for active programs. The easiest place to find and remove startup applications is in Windows' Startup folder. From the Start menu, select Programs (All Programs in Windows XP) and find the Startup folder. Delete anything that doesn't absolutely need to run automatically all the time. Firewall and antivirus applications are two of the very few types of programs should always be running on your PC. Not all vendors are up front enough to place their applications in the Startup folder, however. Use Windows' System Configuration Utility to remove hidden startup applications. From the Run prompt (in the Start menu) type msconfig and click OK. Select the Startup tab to check out what other apps are launching at boot up. Uncheck anything nonessential. Many processes and programs have cryptic or obscure names. When in doubt, search the Web to find out what a particular process is supposed to do. Clean out fonts. Fonts are wonderful things. The different types let you give voice to a wonderful variety of expression. But unused or useless fonts are a drag on system performance. Windows loads all your fonts at bootup, just to keep them handy in case an application needs them. But the more fonts you have, the more resources Windows consumes in keeping track of them. You probably have dozens of fonts you won't ever need, and didn't know you had. Periodically go into Windows' Fonts folder (C:\Windows\Fonts) and remove any unused Fonts. Select each font (hold down SHIFT or CTRL while clicking to select contiguous or noncontiguous groups, respectively) and choose Delete from the File menu. Double-click a font to view a sample. End active desktop. Windows' Active Desktop feature, introduced with Internet Explorer in Windows 95, brings live Web content to your desktop. Even if you enjoy this constant stream of information, it can require exorbitant amounts of video and system memory. Deactivate Active Desktop in Windows 9x/Me by right-clicking a blank area of the Desktop, clicking Properties, and selecting the Web tab. Uncheck the View My Active Desktop As A Web Page box. In WinXP, right-click the Desktop, choose Properties, and select the Desktop tab. Click the Customize Desktop button and, under the Web tab, uncheck each listed Web page. Keep it simple. WinXP's default set of animations and transitions is pleasing to the eye. But it doesn't do your PC any favors, especially if your hardware is a couple years old. All that sliding, fading, and shadowing takes a toll on memory and processing power. But WinXP animations aren't an all-or-nothing proposition. You can customize which effects to use or let Windows handle the decisions. Access your System Properties from the Control Panel (or by right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties). Windows' Disk Cleanup utility will help you free up hard drive space, giving Windows and other applications more room to work. Navigate to the Advanced tab and select the Settings button in the Performance category. Prioritize performance, appearance, or let Windows choose a middle route. Alternately, choose the Custom option and enable or disable specific visual effects by checking or unchecking their respective entries. Play server. Win98 and WinMe handle caching and multitasking functions based on whether they think you're running a desktop, mobile, or server-type machine. The nice thing is that you get to decide. Setting your machine up as a "network server" in Win98/Me will take advantage of performance features standard in later OSes. Right-click My Computer on the Desktop and choose Properties from the context menu that appears. Select the Performance tab and click File System. Change the Typical Role Of This Computer field to Network Server. Clean out the Registry. Windows' Registry often contains duplicate or obsolete entries. The Registry is a database storing all the configuration information for the OS and your system—cleaning it out can help improve Windows' performance dramatically. Don't try to browse and delete Registry entries manually, though. You can easily render your system inoperable with one wrong move, so find a respected Registry utility (we review several in our "System Performance Utilities" sidebar). No matter how much you trust a Registry utility, though, always back up the Registry before attempting to clean it out. Launch the Registry Editor from the Run option under the Start menu. Type regedit in the command line and click OK. From the File menu, click Export and save the backup file (with a .REG extension) in a safe place. To restore the Registry, simply open the Registry Editor again, choose Import (also under the File menu), and find your backup file. <a href="http://www.smartcomputing.com/images/smartcomputing/fullsize/00820110.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.smartcomputing.com/images/smartcomputing/fullsize/00820110.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></blockquote>

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