Ken MillerWays to Speed up Your Computer

1. Defragment Your Hard Drive
One of the most important things you can do to speed up your PC is defragment the hard drive. Over time, the data on your hard drive gets scattered. Disk fragmentation leads to slower PC performance, PC crashes, and slow startup and shutdown. Defragmenting your hard drive puts your data back into its proper place.

To start the Disk Defragmenter, Open the Run Dialog Box. In the Run dialog box, type dfrg.msc and click OK. You can also access the Disk Defragmenter by clicking on the Windows Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

2. Scan for Viruses
Viruses can cause a royal mess on your computer, bringing your performance to a grinding halt. Running a regularly scheduled anti-virus program is one of the best ways to avoid problems and keep your computer running at optimum performance.

3. Check for Spyware and Adware.
Spyware is software that allows companies to monitor what websites you visit. Some even allow the creator to access your computer. Adware is software that displays advertisements. Both of these use system resources and slow down your computer. Running a regularly scheduled anti-spyware and anti-adware program can help speed up you computer immensely

4. Apply Windows Updates
Yes, I know it’s a hassle, but believe me, it’s worth it. If you run Windows and you use the Internet (so, like, almost everyone) you MUST stay up to date with the system patches that come out in response to the security exploits that are discovered on a weekly basis. Failure to update your system is an open invitation to hackers who would like nothing more than to enslave your computer to a slow and cruel death.

5. Uninstall Unneeded Programs.
If you’re like most people, you probably have software and programs on your computer that you simply don’t need anymore. You can free up space on your computer and speed up your system’s performance by uninstalling these programs. However, you must uninstall these programs correctly to really see improvement. Many people right click on a program, press delete and think they deleted a program, but this simply isn’t true.

6. Clean up the Windows Registry
The Windows Registry is the control center for your operating system. This is where the computer stores all of the changes made to your computer, along with the instructions and configurations of every program.

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