Tips to Speed up your Slow Computer! - Computers - http://maxpages.com/nanotechnology/Slow

Acording to Home Office magazine September 1999 edition, here's why your computer is slow and how to fix it.

Believe it or not, you can probably boost your PC's performance without spending a cent. Sure, a new CPU's and faster hard disks can help your sytem stay on the cutting edge, but before you spend a lot of money on major surgery, consider trying some of these ways to pep up your PC for free.

LOSE THE SKIN

Flourishes on the Windows desktop, such as pretty wallpaper images, can brighten your work environment, but they also slow down your PC. Turn off any pattern or background pictures your PC might display by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Properties. Then disable the wallpapper on the Background tab.

NO SPLASHING

Many programs like a display a logo, called splash screen, while they load. All this free advertisement does, though, is add a few seconds to your wait; sometimes you have to close the screen before you can start working. If your favorite application has a splash screen, see if you can disable it from the program's Options or Preferences dialog box.

ORGANIZE THE DRIVE

Ever suspect that your PC gets slower the longer you use it? I does. Even a fast hard disk gets bogged down with data, and over time, the information gets framented. That means the disk head has to skip all over the platter to load a large file instead of getting it all in one place. Esay fix: About once a month, use Windows' built-in defragment tool to rearrange files into more efficient, contigous chunks. From Windows Explorer, you can find the defrag tool in your hard disk's Properties dialog box: Right-click the drive, choose Properties, then click the Tools tab and Defragment Now.

CLEAN THE REGISTRY

There's a cottage industry of uninstaller utilities that clean hard-to-reach debris from your hard disk. Programs like Norton CleanSweep ($40; Symantec, 800-441-7234, www.symantec.com ) are designed to clear our junk that slows down your PC, including the Registry-- the file that stores all your critical system settings and tends to get clogged over time.

ENABLE DMA

Sometimes your PC isn't as fast as it might be because of mistakes made at the factory. one of the most common glitches is shipping your CD-ROM drive or hard disk with the Direct Memory Acess (DMA) option disalbed. This feature gives your drives added speed, becuase they can operate without relying on the CPU for instructons. To check the status of your drives, right-click on My Computer, choose Properties, then go to the Device Manager tab. Find your CD-ROM drive and click its setting tab; make sure DMA is checked. If your PC starts performing strangely, go back and disable DMA-- but chances are, you'll see painless performance improvement

SOUP UP THE WEB

If you use the Internet a lot, speeding it up can make a big difference. If your browser allows it, you can turn off graphis, which will help bring pages load much faster. You can also use a Web page accelerator like the free NeSonic ( Web3000.com, 425-836-3000) www.web3000.com a handy utility that intelligently caches Web pages for faster loading the next time you visit.

TEMP FILES

You don't need half a gigabyte of tiles that are never used, do you? Once each month, open Windows Explorer and inspect you tempory folders. If you have a folder named C:/temp, you can delete its contents as often you like; they're just files that Windows was using for tasks such as program installations but no longer needs. Your PC is hiiding another temporary folder, too, called C:\Windows\temp. Pruning here can save more disk space, though occasionally you'll find Windows is stil using a file here-if Explorer gives you an "access denied message or won't let you delete a file, that's fine.

REINSTALL WINDOWS

Nobody said that cheap fixes were always easy. About once a year, its'a a good idea to reformat your hard disk and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows. Why? The Registry and other Windows system files get cluttered with digital junk that slows down your PC and introduces unpredictable problems. But if you back up all your data and carefully restore your applications, it can be like getting a new PC every January 1st

Excerted from:
Home Office Computing (CurtCo FREEDOM Group)
www.hoc.smalloffice.com from all editions, 1999-2000

PC Computing November 1997 Copyright

Fortune December 7th, 8th 1998 Copyright

CommuniQue March 1998 edition Issue 89 Copyright.

Chris Yurko from Home Office magazine

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Page Updated Wed Jun 6, 2001 5:25pm EDT