|
|
How to Speed-up Windows XPIs your Windows XP machine a little slower than you would like? If your computer has gone from a zippy machine to a sluggish beast, you can take matters into your own hands and speed it up. While many software applications have been written to speed up Windows XP, your computer’s operating system comes with a few built-in utilities that you can use to improve performance. The follow three tools will help improve startup times, boost system resources, and improve system performance:
MSCONFIG MSCONFIG, with its strange name, is a useful system configuration tool. When it comes to speeding up Windows XP, this tool allows you to manage your startup items. When you have too many applications automatically loading when you boot up your computer, it takes time to load each one – and each program uses up RAM. The more RAM reserved for these programs, the less RAM available for tasks. By limiting the startup items to essential programs only, you will have more system resources available. Go to Start > Run and type in: msconfig. Click the OK button to confirm and launch the utility. Once loaded, click on the Startup tab. Here you’ll find a list of all of the programs that are set to load with Windows XP. Drag the column to make it wider if necessary. It’s often difficult to know which programs you can safely remove. By expanding the column, you’ll be able to see the program’s location which helps in identifying it. In general, keep your computer security products such as antivirus applications enabled for automatic startup. After all, you need this software running at all times. On the other hand, remove programs that you don’t need at all times such as Adobe Reader. Removing Reader from startup doesn’t remove it from your computer. If you have a PDF file that you need to open later, you can launch Reader when you’re ready to use it. Why load a program and give it system resources if you’re not going to use it? Disk Cleanup Run the Disk Cleanup tool every week or so. This tool allows you to remove temporary files that take up disk space and interfere with performance. To use Disk Cleanup, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Alternately, you can go to My Computer, right-click the drive that you want to clean, click Properties, and then click the Disk Cleanup button. The second method allows you to see a pie chart representing your hard drive’s current status. Once loaded, Disk Cleanup gathers information about the amount of hard drive space you can recover by removing unnecessary files such as Recycle Bin files, memory dump files, downloaded program files, and temporary Internet files. You’ll see a categorized list with checkboxes as well as a description of what these files are used for. Read the descriptions and decide whether or not to remove the files. Place a checkmark in any categories that you want to remove and click OK. Disk Defragmenter The Disk Defragmenter, which is found in Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter, speeds up Windows XP by realigning fragmented files on the hard drive. This allows the operating system to quickly find the files it needs. Once launched, you’ll see a visual display showing the current fragmentation levels. If the disk is fragmented, run the defragmenter tool, preferably overnight since it can take several hours. Before starting, close all open programs and stop any services that could interfere. For example, if your computer’s screensaver kicks in during defragging, it could cause the tool to stop what it’s doing and start over from the beginning. If your computer is sluggish, these three tools are a good starting point.
|
How to Speed-up Downloads Windows Vista How to Make Windows 7 Faster Computer Start-up Troubleshooting Troubleshooting Slow Programs Firefox Issues |
|
