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Tips & Tricks To Make Your PC Run Faster!
First Things First... ensure proper ventilation for your pc. Do not place the tower in an enclosed space especially if
the work area is not air-conditioned and ALWAYS keep your PC free of D.U.S.T. (Oh Yes, I know; usually stuff
stops working after a pc has been opened for dusting.
Don't panic - your pc is alright! what has almost certainly happened is a cable connector of one
of the devices - hard disk, cd drive, etc, has come loose. A careful look is all you need to find
the connector that accidentally came loose)
-Ralph Waldo Emerson Now take a look at these simple and free steps to keep your pc healthy and allow it to work much faster than usual. And if you are still feeling squeamish no matter what Emerson says then the first tip will show you how to restore your computer back to how it was before you made any changes to it. 1. HOW TO RESTORE YOUR PC. VISTA How-To: click Start, type restore in the Start Search field, click on System Restore at the top of the Start Menu -OR- click Start, type rstrui in the start search field and hit Enter. -OR- click Start - All programs - Accessories - System tools - System restore. -OR- IF you are unable to start System Restore from within Windows you can do it from Safe Mode. If your pc is ON shut it down. Then turn it back on and immediately start tapping the F8 key... On the Advanced Boot Options screen select Safe Mode using the arrow keys and hit Enter. Once your system loads up in safe mode use the info above to navigate to System Restore. Follow the on-screen instructions to restore your computer to a previous date. XP How-to: click Start - All programs - Accessories - System tools - System restore. -OR- click Start - Run - type the following command in the Start-Run box and hit Enter or OK the command to type in is %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe -OR- start your pc in Safe Mode (start tapping the F8 key as soon as you start your pc and select Safe Mode) log in using your Admin password and at the Windows Is Running In Safe Mode box select NO to run a System Restore. Follow the on-screen instructions to restore your computer to a previous date. NOTE! For Advanced Users: Create an instant restore point in XP For maximum safety create an instant restore point just before you make any changes. 1. Open a Notepad file. 2. Type or CopyPaste these two lines: Set IRP = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore") MYRP = IRP.createrestorepoint ("My Restore Point", 0, 100) 3. Save the file as InstantRestorePoint.vbs On Your Desktop. Now, when ever you need an instant restore point simply right-click this file and select to open with Microsoft (r) Windows Based Script Host. An Instant Restore Point Is Created! P.S. Make it a one-click operation. When you rightclick the file point to Open With and select 'choose a program' On the list of programs you get select Microsoft (r) Windows Based Script Host and check the 'always use the selected program to open this kind of file'. Click OK. 2. DISK CLEANUP. VISTA How-To: click start - all programs - accessories - system tools - disk cleanup, click drive c - ok. -OR- click the Start button, type Disk Cleanup in the start search field and in the results field above click on Disk Cleanup. Select the disk you want to click and proceed. (P.S. Select to delete all items except compressed all files) XP How-to: click start - all programs - accessories - system tools - disk cleanup, select drive and click OK. -OR- click Start, click Run, in the Open box type cleanmgr and click OK. Select disk and proceed. -OR- In Windows Explorer or My Computer right click the disk you want to clean, click Properties, click General, click Disk Cleanup. (P.S. Select to delete all items except compressed all files) NOTE! For Advanced Users: XP normally does not allow deletion of temp files accessed in the last 7 days. This clutter of the last 7 days still remains to continue slowing down your pc. To do a complete disc cleanup launch the Registry Editor (click Start, click Run, type Regedit click OK). Scroll to... HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files. Locate and double-click the LastAccess value. When you see the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the Value Data setting from 7 to 0 and click OK. To complete the operation, close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP. 3. DISK DEFRAG. VISTA How-To: click start - control panel - system and maintenance - administrative tools - defragment your hard drive: -OR- Press the 'Windows Button' on your keyboard, type 'Disk Defrag' and press enter: -OR- click start, type 'Disk Defrag' in the Start Search field. Look up and click on Disk Defrag link. On the Disk Defragmenter box that opens either select to run on a schedule or 'Defragment Now' XP How-to: open 'My Computer' right click the disk you want to defrag, on 'tools' tab click 'defragment now' select disk, Analyse then Defragment. -OR- click Start, click Run, type in Compmgmt.msc click OK or Enter, click Disk Defragmenter, select disk, Analyse then Defragment. -OR- click Start, click Run, type in Dfrg.msc click OK or Enter, select disk, Analyse then Defragment. 4. INTERNET EXPLORER CLEAN UP. IE 7 - Tools - Internet Options - Advanced - Reset IE 8 - Tools - Internet Options - Advanced - Reset * If you don't see your 'tools' tab, hit the 'alt' key once. * You will loose all saved passwords, browsing history, temp files, favorites and home pages. * You will gain a much faster internet explorer and you can easily add a new home page. 4a. INTERNET EXPLORER - SPEED UP. APPLIES TO IE8 Version For XP - click start, click run, type cmd and press enter or hit ok. In the command prompt type regsvr32 actxprxy.dll and hit enter Restart Your Computer and Check IE8 For VISTA/WINDOWS7 - click start, in start search type cmd. RightClick the Cmd shortcut that appears at the top of the search results and select Run as Administrator In the command prompt type regsvr32 actxprxy.dll and hit enter Restart Your Computer and Check IE8 Share this free info with friends and family.. Click on the 'sharethis' link below and pass it on. 5. INCREASE VIRTUAL MEMORY. VISTA How-To: Click Start, Control Panel, System Maintenance, System. (left pane) Click Advanced System Settings, On Advanced tab under Performance, click Settings Click Advanced tab again, under Virtual Memory click Change Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box Select the drive you want, click Custom size, type in new size for Initial and Max, click set and OK. Usually Initial can be 2046 and Max 4092. P.S. DO NOT disable or delete the paging file. XP How-to: click start, right click My Computer, select Properties, click Advanced, In Performance click Settings, click Advanced again, In Virtual Memory click Change, select drive, set initial size 2046, max 4092, click Set, Restart. 6. DO A 'MSCONFIG' (What Now!?!) Stop programs that startup with windows even though they may not be needed. If you do need them you can always start them later but by removing them from the StartUp list your pc will boot up much faster. For XP... click - Start - Run - type msconfig - enter or OK. In System Configuration Utility click on StartUp, Uncheck all programs you do not need to start everytime windows starts. (To find out what a program is or does simply google the name of the program and you will be able to judge whether it should be stopped or not) For Vista... click the start button, in the 'start search' field type in 'msconfig' ... look up in the programs area and you will see the link for 'msconfig'... Well, Click It!. In the System Configuration Utility that pops up find and click on the StartUp tab, Uncheck all programs you do not need to start everytime windows starts. (To find out what a program is or does simply google the name of the program and you will be able to judge whether it should be stopped or not) 7. OPTIMIZING THE HARD DRIVE. Set up your Hard Disc Drive for Optimal Performance. First navigate to your Device Manager In XP - click Start - rightclick My Computer - click Properties - click Hardware - select Device Manager. In Vista - click the start button, in the 'start search' field type in 'device manager' ... look up in the programs area and you will see the link for 'device manager' ... click on it. In Device Manager... - click on the + to the left of disk drives - right click the drive you want to optimize - click on policies - click on optimum performance - click OK or apply. (note - enable write caching, enable advanced performance) 8. CUTTING OUT FRILLS. Many of Windows effects slow down your pc, effects like sliding or fading windows and shadows under icons. You can limit these effects and gain an additional increase in your pc's performance For both XP and Vista Click Start, rightclick "My Computer", click "Properties" click "Advanced" tab click "Settings" button in the "Performance" section, click "Adjust for best performance" to turn off all windows effects or... click "Custom" and select as many as you want to turn off. The more you turn off the faster your pc. click OK, OK to save and exit. Restart your computer. 9. NO MORE MICROSOFT ERROR REPORTING MESSAGE Stop the 'annoying' Microsoft Error Reporting message completely instead of telling your pc "No, I don't want to report it!" every time the report shows up. rightclick "My Computer", click "Properties" click "Advanced" tab, click "Error Reporting" tab select box next to "Disable Error Reporting" click OK, OK to save and exit. NO MORE ERROR REPORTS! 10. THE LAZIEST WAY TO SHUTTING DOWN YOUR PC - VISTA & XP Simply double-clicking this desktop shortcut shuts down your pc. Of course, you first need to create the shortcut before clicking on it. So right click on an empty space on the desktop and select 'New... Shortcut' For the location type SHUTDOWN -s -t 01 click next and give the shortcut a name. Click Finish and you have a shortcut to shutting down your pc on the desktop. While you are at it make the shortcut look the part too. Here's how... Right click the shortcut, select 'Properties', click on 'Change Icon', select the 'Power On/Off' icon, click Apply/OK and you have an icon that does what it looks like Share this free info with friends and family.. Click on the 'sharethis' link below and pass it on. Yours Truly, Jerome D. WriteBetterAds - Do It Free P.S. Do You Run Your Own Business? Would You Like To Try Some Free Advertising? How About 10 Free Ads Targetted To 10 Cities of Your Choice? How About Free Ad-Response Stats To Know Which Ads Work and Which Don't Interested? Click Here. |