my computer is running slow, I have defrag, cleanup disk and virus check what else can I do?

Question

my computer is running slow, I have defrag, cleanup disk and virus check what else can I do?

Answer 1

Chezney,



Other ways that you can improve system performance are:



~ Uninstall Unused Software ~

We all maintain software on our systems we rarely, if ever, use.

That software can steal system resources.



Click Start>Control Panel>Add Remove Programs to pull up a screen that allows you to remove old programs you don't use anymore. Simply select and uninstall all programs you know for sure you don't need or want.



~ Buy More RAM ~

Increasing your RAM, a computer's memory, can dramatically increase speed when running certain operations or programs. RAM costs so little now that you should install the maximum amount of memory your system can handle.



~ Managing The Application Startup Utility - System Tray Cleanup ~

This operation requires a bit more technical savvy than the other four, so proceed with caution. Many programs load into the system tray in the lower right of your computer's desktop and consume system resources even if you never use them.



Click Start>Run, type in msconfig then press Enter. Click the "Startup" tab to see a list of programs that automatically start with Windows. Clear the check box next to programs you know you don't want to load at startup. But don't clear any checkbox unless you are 100% certain of a program's purpose. Once you finish, click OK and it will prompt you to restart Windows.



~ Empty Recycle Bin ~

Here is where all of your deleted files are stored temporarily until you decide to empty this folder by deleting the files within. The Recycle Bin was created as a catch-all place so that in the event of people accidentally deleting files and not being able to retrieve them again. But it is set up to hold the files until you either manually empty the Bin or configure it to automatically empty upon system shutdown.



~ Delete Temporary Files ~

Windows creates temporary files whenever a file is opened. This is for the purpose of creating a mirror document that can be retrieved in the event of a system crash.



1. In c:\WINDOWS|TEMP delete every file within this folder.

2. Do a search for other temporary files. Type in the Search field *.tmp - you'll get a list of files ending with the file extension .tmp. Delete the entire list.

3. Empty Recycle Bin when through.



~ Clear History, Cookies, And Internet Caches From The Internet Browser ~



~ Turn Off Themes ~

If you don't mind sacrificing a little eye candy, turn off themes ENTIRELY. On older systems you can get close to a 30% improvement in performance.



Click Start, then "Control Panel". If your Control Panel is in category mode you then need to pick "Performance and Maintenance".

Then in either Control Panel mode>Administrative Tools> Services>Themes. R-click on it and choose "Properties". Click "Stop", set the Startup Type to "Disabled" and hit "Apply". Windows will take on a much more basic appearance, but you've dumped a great deal of resource-hogging crud. Doing this is my standard practice in my home network of 5 MAC's & PC's to extend the life of my older machines and improve the performance of my newer ones. It also gets the clutter out of your way to make you more productive.



~ Reinstall Windows ~

The best way to speed up your slow computer is to reinstall Windows. This advice goes especially for people who have purchased a name brand PC (HP, Dell, Gateway, etc.) because those come loaded with so much junk. Even fast performing machines bog down with the way they are packaged from manufacturers. Usually manufacturers dont include disks for windows anymore and you need to call and have them send you one or borrow one from a friend (but use your OWN legal key, of course). If you own a Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. computer and you follow my advice by reinstalling a fresh bare copy of Windows, you will be AMAZED at how much quicker it is.



~ Clean Up The Registry ~

These tools have been a Godsend to me and I'd like to share them with you...



RegVac is shareware - $29.95 is a suite of 8 Registry cleaning and tweaking utilities that got the lead out of my overburdened systems. Well worth the price!

http://downloads.zdnet.com/search.aspx?k...



Registry Detective free download & Tutorial

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,737...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,811



~ Virtual Memory Adjustment - Optimizing Your Page File ~



Optimizing your page file when you're running low on RAM is always a good idea. When all physical RAM in a computer is in use, Windows starts using the hard disk as if it were additional RAM. This is why we have a Pagefile (also called the swap file). Because RAM memory is a lot more faster than the hard disk, whenever the computer begins to use the Pagefile to relieve memory pressure, we begin to experience a drastic performance degradation.



One of the most effective things you can do to improve performance is ensure that there is enough RAM available to avoid frequent paging (swapping) of memory contents between disk and RAM. This means that the actual limit on the memory used by all applications is the amount of RAM installed plus the maximum size of the Pagefile.



How much swap space do you need?

That depends the amount of RAM you have and the programs you use. The rule of the thumb is 1.5 times the amount of system memory, unless you have too much load on your system. Make its initial size as big as the maximum size. Although this will cause the Pagefile to occupy more HDD space, we do not want it to start off small, then having to constantly grow on the HDD. Writing large files (and the Pagefile is indeed large) to the HDD will cause a lot of disk activity that will cause performance degradation. Also, since the Pagefile only grows in increments, you will probably cause Pagefile fragmentation, adding more overhead to the already stressed HDD.



NOTE: If you use Windows XP and Fast User Switching, there are special considerations: When a user is not active, there will need to be space available in the page file to ‘roll out’ his or her work: therefore, the page file will need to be larger. Only experiment in a real situation will establish how big, but a start point might be an initial size equal to half the size of RAM for each user logged in.



WinXP Settings



1. From My Computer, R-click>Properties>Advanced tab>Performance Options>Settings.

2. Again click the Advanced tab and then in the Virtual Memory section click Change.

Now you can view and set the parameters you need.

3. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.

4. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.

NOTE: If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum paging file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. When you increase the paging file size, you typically do not need to restart your computer.

Answer 2

Scan for spyware/adware using a spyware removal program - the best is Adaware SE.



Spyware slows your computer down because it spies on your every move - every site you visit - and sends the information back to the company so that they know what you're doing. This helps them keep ahead of the competition, but isn't fair to you as it slows your computer and they often don't ask permission!



So remove the spyware and the program with the spyware embedded (often porn downloaders, p2p programs etc.) and your computer should run quicker again.



If not, then time to either get it checked by a specialist, or get a new one, they aren't expensive!



Also, make sure you never use the last 10% of your hard drive, as the operating system needs this to create 'swap files' and temporary files to deal with all the processes running on the computer. You could also try increasing the size of your paging file, provided you know how much RAM you have. There are online guide which teach you this, google 'increase paging file'

Answer 3

Stop downloading porn. The viruses that come with it slow the computer down like crazy. Lots of sex is rarely ever disease free. Didn't you know that?



If it is a Compaq (HP) product, you could try calling Marwan or Abdul at tech support in India or Pakistan. They might give you a few pointless solutions in broken English. Once you have tried all of those and they have proven to be absolutely useless (trust me-they will), you could set the piece of junk on fire, dance around it and chant obsceneties naked, and use the remains as a giant paperweight!



I'm fixing to do that with my fine piece of Compaq Presario quality equipment in the very near future. We could have a party!

Answer 4

Do a right click properties on you windows install folder... if its older than two years.... reinstall windows. All the updates, registry changes, programs installed... uninstalled.... installed... uninstalled, etc will slowly but surely cause your machine to slow down. The best thing to do is get all your files (Docs/pics/vids/music/emails) onto another form of storage, either slave another hard disk to your C Drive, use "partition magic" to shuffle your disc around and create another partition on your C drive to store your files on, buy/borrow a external USB HDD, burn it all to DVD. Then.... stick in your windows disk and hit restart. Boot from the disk, delete your C partition, create a new C partition of about 20gig, the remainder of the drive chop up into a Program area (call it "P") and a Data Area (Call it "D") and install a new copy of windows. Defragment as there's alot of empty space created during install where all the files from the disc are temporarilly stored, but then deleted. This will move the majority of the Windows install files/folders back to the front of the disc where they should be. Apply all updates from microsoft, (defrag again if you want to...?) then your virus protection. From here you leave the C drive as alone as you can. Install all other programs on the P drive, and put all you data you saved from your previous install on the D drive. If you want to keep the "My Docs" document structure you can on your new desktop right click on "My Documents" and where it says "location" change the drive letter to "D"... this will need to be done for all users of the machine and will segregate all your bulky files into a completely different partition and not use up space or interfere with the windows install.



Now any updates service packs have a fairly empty space to install themselves into. When Windows does slow down a bit, you can very quickly perform a defrag on a 20gig partition instead of possible 100+gig, knowing that you are not shuffling about bulky files or programs that have wrapped themselves around the windows system files causing the slow down. You can even within the registry edit (RUN > "REGEDIT") the default location where programs are installed (change to your P drive location)... I think its SOFTWARE > MICROSOFT > WINDOWS > CURRENT VERSION > PROGRAM FILES.... there should be a text string you can edit currently saying "C:/Program Files". Be aware that this registry edit will cause updates to Microsoft Internet Explorer not to work, you'll need to change it back temporarilly to apply the update.

Answer 5

I had the same problem with one of the pcs on my network, and using the below listed freeware programs, helped me a lot.



http://www.ccleaner.com/

CCleaner (stands for Crap Cleaner) is an excellent freeware program for cleaning up junk on your hard drive that you don't need, and that takes up space on your drive and slows down your pc.







Another possibility is that you don't have enough RAM memory to run everything on your pc smoothly. You can add a memory card to your pc or you can use the below program to see what's automatically loading and running on your pc in the background every time you start up your pc, and then remove things from the startup list, that you don't need. (This doesn't mean deleting these things totally, just removing them from STARTUP only)



The below links have a number of freeware and shareware utility programs for managing your startup and system files, available for download



This is the source whose utility programs I've found I personally like best.

http://www.sysinternals.com/



There are also good helpful programs at the below links.



http://www.freewarefiles.com/results.php?categoryid=9&subcategoryid=217&action=sort&sort=downloads



http://www.freeware-guide.com/dir/util/system.html



http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwmemory.html



I also recommend that you download and run Spybot Search & Destroy, its freeware and its great.



Spybot Search and Destroy Homepage

http://www.safer-networking.org/



I also have its Tea Timer feature installed and running all the time, Tea Timer will block anything that tries to sneak onto your pc without you knowing it. Many trojan downloaders try to sneak onto your pc from websites or when you download legitimate programs, and then once they are on your pc, the trojan downloaders will download other things such as adware, browser hijackers, etc.

Answer 6

Please check your RAM is it compatable with your hard disk .Check for your system to hardware people there is a problem related to hardware Some time you download certain things from net which slows the speed . use less amout of net. Try to delete the Tempary file in Documents and setting to your Login

Answer 7

Have you enough space on your hd? Do you need more memory?You might have a lot of files, programs that you dont need. Also, programs such as Limewire, Azureus tend to slow down a computers speed.

Answer 8

You can get an external hard drive and put most of your things on that and then your computer should run a little faster. You could also restore your computer to a date when you first purchased it, but then you'll have to reinstall your software that you got later on. Good luck!

Answer 9

Hey,

I was looking for a free download Crazy Machines II I found it here: http://bitly.com/1rlB8l8



Finally the full version is avaiable!

Crazy Machines 2 is an incredible game play that tests the player’s skills in solving puzzles.

Answer 10

The less space you have on your Harddrive the slower your pc will run, and if that doesnt work, just back everything up and format. When stuff goes wrong and i dont its too complecated to fix or i have the slightest idea whats wronng , i always format.

Answer 11

what is wrong with your computer is wrong with the hole world computer is windows



you have to e.mail window's at milliondollerboybillgate'[e-mail]



what is wrong is you have a small program running in the background taking all your memory up

it's name is windows and people must stop using this program as it will take over the world and one day ever one will be using it



well oop's too late .........!!!

we have all go it!!1

Answer 12

You may be having a virus. Norton, AVG , Avast are

widely used and effective antivirus software. You can

download these free softwares at

http://fixit.in

Answer 13

have you done a spyware / adware scan?



Run a regcleaner or system mainttenance program such as system mechanic Pro which will remove any unwanted stuff

Answer 14

Install System Mechanic Professional 6 and run program,later one you see the problem!!!

Answer 15

if its an e machines pc you may consider buying a new 'power hamster' un like most pc's e machines use a small rodent to power there cheap *** computers and the hamsters get old and die,



i had a near miss recently when i thought my power hamster had died but it had only fallen off its wheel

Answer 16

Remove programs that you don't often use? Transfer large files to CD? Get a new puter?

Answer 17

run disk clean up, it removes unnecessary files

Answer 18

I have a performance upgrade programme which i can send to you if you would like



matt =)

Answer 19

well you might need to back up your files to free up space, sometimes if you hard drive has to much in it it will run slower/.

Answer 20

start-run-msconfig

from the startup remove any unused programs.

restart computer.

try also uninstalling unused programs.

Answer 21

u got a reinstal one fressh windows xp sp2 ....on your pc

Answer 22

phone my mate andy, he's awesome

Answer 23

well, you may need to upgrade your pc